LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 






UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



> 



REMINISCENCES 



HAPPY LIFE 



TEACHEIi. 



ALFRED HOLBROOK 



' AUG 3 mj. 






CINCINNATI: 

Elm Street Printing Company, Nos. 176 & 178 Elm St. 



^\1 



^ 



b 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1885, by 

ALFRED HOLBROOK, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



PREFACE. 



After my children had teased me for many years to write 
out the incidents of my life, and I had demurred, it was sug- 
gested by one of them : "Why, papa, wouldn't you like to have 
the life of your father, with his experiences?" "Most as- 
suredly." "Then think how your children and grandchildren 
will prize your experiences and your triumphs." 

To this I succumbed, and set about writing these " remi- 
niscences." 

They may or may not be valuable, or interesting to some of 
my seventy thousand pupils. I hope they may. 

Writing amid the pressure of business cares, I have en- 
deavored to introduce such facts as may exemplify my theory of 
Education, of Teaching and School Management. Possibly the 
narrations of those difficulties, common more or less to all 
teachers, and the ways by which such difficulties were con- 
verted into means of my continued success, may arouse some 
discouraged teacher " to take heart again" and feel that he' 
can use similar plans to save and bless his pupils, to establish 
his own goings. 

For my innovations upon the general plan of education, I 
have come in for the personal denunciations and maledictions 
of many college men from time to time. I can safely say that 
-while I have freely attacked the usages and abuses so prevalent 
in colleges, I have never permitted myself to speak disrespect- 
fully or unkindly of any college man. On the other hand, 
there are very few college men that I do not most thoroughly 
respect, and among my best friends I have always numbered 
many college graduates. But they are those who have ac- 
quainted themselves with my work, and who have discovered 
more good than evil in my efforts to do my duty in my own 
Tvay. 

(iii) 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

GENEALOGY. 
How I found the line of my ancestry — Descent and descend- 
ants — Of good Puritan stock — Conj ugal devotion — My first recol- 
lections of Melissa Pierson — Holbrooks and Piersons settle on, 
the Western Reserve — Melissa's return in after years — Melissa 
Craft and Melissa Pierson two rare examples of piety — Their in- 
fluence on my life. 

CHAPTER n. 

AT GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS. 

A pupil under Elizur Wight — My father's Scientific Lectures 
— John Todd's story-telling — Early mechanical training — A co- 
incidence. 

CHAPTER III. 

LIEE IN BOSTON. 

My father a Yale graduate ; a student under Prof. Silliman — - 
Failure of Colleges in scientific training then and now — The 
first Manual Labor School — Lyceum System introduced — The 
origin of Holbrook's apparatus — Why I did not go to Col- 
lege — Day's Algebra mastered in morning hours — My experience 
in the best school in Boston — Lowell Mason and his sons — 
Daniel Webster in a storm — Dr. Lyman Beecher's church burned 
— His power — A remarkable snow-storm — A sad love story — My 
father's educational labors— He secured the first geological sur- 
vey in the United States. 

(iv) 



CONTENTS. V 

CHAPTER IV. 

MY TEACHERS. 
I am taught to read a chapter in the Bible at three years of 
age — Early punishments — Old time district school — My father 
a good Normalite — Victims of the College fetich — My only whip- 
ping at school — Distinguished teachers : Elizur Wight, Dr. 
John Todd, Dr. Samuel Beech, Zephaniah Swift — The Puritan 
Sabbath — Repeal of the Blue Laws — I am guilty of breaking 
the Sabbath - Grandfather Swift's home a " Ministers' Tavern" 
— Signing the Temperance pledge — Rum-drinking deacons — A 
sad case — My childhood recollections of College Professors — 
Puritan customs — Grandfather Holbrook's high moral charac- 
ter and business energy — My father as my teacher — PI is "drawing 
out" system — Our familiarity with prominent places, men and 
books — Sights in the Boston Museum — Reading, and reading — 
(A story to tell) — Object-lesson teaching— My father's advanced 
views of Education — My attitude toward colleges and college 
men — My educational views an inheritance — Some lessons in 
mechanics and business practices. 

CHAPTER V. 

STAMFORD. 

A short chapter of stories. 

CHAPTER VI. 

MY FIRST SCHOOL. 
Engaged at seventeen years of age, on my own conditions, to 
teach a country school — My examination quickly accomplished 
— Efficacy of muscular Christianity shown in my first day's 
teaching — Pouring in and drawing out methods tested — The 
^x^t preliminary drill in class-work — The first blackboard used — 
Ami the teacher or my patrons? — Boarding 'round — How we 
enjoyed it — Teaching a delight in its triumphs — Our Literary 
Society — School Directors' dodges — A lesson in learning and 
teaching the modern languages. 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER Vir. 

MY EXPERIENCES IN NEW YORK CITY. 

Preparatory work in engineering — Social environments — Relig- 
ious discussions — Theater-going — Five Points — 111 health — 
Horace Greeley — Evenings employed in reading — Attendance 
upon lectures — Conversation with an intelligent Catholic — 
Arthur Tappan — New York fire, 1S36 — Mr. Finney's preachings 
effects upon me. 

CHAPTER Vin. 

MELISSA AND I. 

Our early training — Our love story — Her character and work, 
CHAPTER IX. 

A REMINISCENCE IN BEREA. 

First Institutes in Ohio — My first Institute — Eastern and 
"Western hospitality forty years ago — Melissa's prophets' chamber, 

CHAPTER X. 

SOME REMINISCENCES OF JOHN BALDWIN. 

Berea community — Lyceum village — Discovery and sale of 
Berea grindstone — I am entrapped — Resignation — Removal to 
Chardon — Gifts of house and lot — A characteristic incident of 
Mr. B — Hit, keen appreciation of good school management — 
Encounter with the doctors — Our last meeting. 

CHAPTER XI. 

EXPERIENCES AT CHARDON, O. 

Self-reporting system discussed — A woman's enterprise-^-Gov, 
Corwin's oratory — Providential interference in my behalf — Dis- 
honesty a growing evil among teachers — Purchase of J5S2,500 
worth of apparatus — 111 health the cause of closing school — 
Partnership with Dr. Nicholls. 

( Contents continued on p. 3^8.) 



Reminiscences of Alfred I^olbrooL 



CHAPTER I. 



GENEALOGY. 

In tumbling over the rubbish, one rainy day, 
in the garret of the house in which I was born, 
built by my great-great-grandfather, early in the 
eighteenth century, I found a copy-book, written 
by my grandfather, Daniel Holbrook. Besides 
many pages of manuscript, written from copies 
apparently, at school, there were other pages of 
miscellaneous matter, chiefly historical, relating to 
the settlement of Derby, Connecticut, and the 
part the Holbrook family had had in the growth 
of the town. 

My grandfather wrote a large, round., beautiful 
hand, more legible than print. The manuscript 
was probably over sixty years old, and it is nearly 
sixty years since I found it. 

The genealogy of the Holbrooks was given thus, 
somewhat: Among the twenty-three families that 
formed the first organization of the township of 

(7) 



8 REMINISCENCES. 

Derby, I find Stephen Pierson and Deacon Abel 
Holbrook. This was in 1675. These twenty- 
three families had already settled a minister, built 
him a house, also a meeting-house, costing ;^ioo, 
pledged him a support by taxation on their lands, 
besides paying their proportion in supporting a 
minister at Milford, whence most of them had re- 
moved. 

This ancestor, Abel Holbrook, had previously 
been accustomed to worship at Milford, taking his 
wife and baby there and back every Sabbath, a 
distance of eight miles through the woods. Their 
custom was to ride one horse ; the couple taking 
turns in riding and walking, the one riding carry- 
ing the child. This method of traveling was called 
"to ride and tie." 

Our family comes from John Holbrook, (one of 
three brothers), who emigrated from Derby, En- 
gland, and settled at Oyster Bay, Long Island, 
1652. Deacon Abel Holbrook settled on the 
farm extending over Sentinel Hill and through 
Pleasant Valley in Derby, Connecticut, 1676. 
Deacon Daniel Holbrook married 1729. Deacon 
Daniel Holbrook, second, my grandfather, married 
1766. He was a Colonel in the Revolutionary 
War. Josiah Holbrook married Lucy Swift, 181 5; 
children: Alfred (the writer of this) and Dwight. 
Alfred married Melissa Pierson, March 24, 1843- 
children: Josiah, R. Hcber, John B., Agnes 
Irene, Anne Lucy, and Alfred Holbrook. The 
youngest, Alfred Holbrook, was drowned when 



GENEALOGY. 9 

fifteen years of age. The others are living, and 
engaged with their father in the National Normal 
University. The mother died, May, 1884. 

My grandfather, Colonel Holbrook, states that 
Captain Bradley, in his regiment, was shot through 
the head, in the defense of East Haven. I have 
often seen the hat he wore, penetrated with the 
bullet-holes, hanging in the house of his son. Cap- 
tain Bradley, of Derby. 

The present Holbrooks may consider themselves 
as coming from good Puritan stock, an unbroken 
line of deacons. Some of my Derby recollections 
may be interesting to my family and other imme- 
diate friends. My mother died when I was two 
years old, consequently I do not remember her. 
I only remember hearing my father speak of her 
once: 'T never came into the house or into her 
presence, anywhere, that she did not welcome me 
with her sweet and beautiful smile." 

My parents were both good singers, and led 
their parts in the church-choir of Derby. My 
aunts have told me that "my father sang my 
mother's favorite hymn at her burial by himself," 
but he was never heard to sing afterward. He 
never married again, though, in my opinion, he 
was a very handsome and attractive man, and 
might have married a fortune at several different 
times, as I was told. 

When my father had built a house on Sentinel 
Hill, and had moved into it, Aunt Irene Pierson 
occupied the Holbrook homestead in Pleasant Val- 



lO REMINISCENCES. 

ley, while her husband was at work on the home 
farm. It thus happened, that my wife, Melissa, 
and I, were born in the same room in the Hol- 
brook mansion. My first recollection of her is 
that I was seated by a little, flaxen-ringletted girl 
in school for punishment, when about seven years 
old. The punishment thus given by Miss Julia 
Ann Tomlinson, was not severe ; whether it proved 
effectual I am unable to state. 

Melissa left Derby with her parents when eight 
years old. They came to Kirtland, Ohio, and 
settled on a farm the mother had received as her 
patrimony from the Holbrook estate. The farm 
is still occupied by her son, Julius Pierson. 

Some forty years after the family left Derby, 
my wife and I returned. I was continually sur- 
prised at the familiar acquaintance which she ex- 
hibited with every street, brook, bridge, every old 
house and old family in Derby. I had left Derby 
twelve years later. This was the first time either 
had returned to Derby since coming West. My 
recollections of my childhood are very pleas- 
ant. My aunt, Mrs. Melissa Holbrook Craft, had 
taken me when my mother died, and provided for, 
and trained me, till my father called me to Boston. 

She was a woman of most implicit trust in her 
Savior. With small means she rendered help and 
sympathy to all who were in want or distress. 
Such self-denial in all personal comforts for in- 
creasing the means of helping others, I have never 
seen in any other, excepting one. Besides feed- 



GENEALOGY. 1 1 

ing and clothing me, her house was the home at 
different times for various others who had been 
unfortunate. She was often told that she would 
scarcely eat or wear anything which she could 
give away. She lived to an. advanced age, and 
never wanted for any good thing, was always 
thankful, and never was entirely deprived of the 
privilege of giving consolation and aid to some 
whom she thought more needy than herself. 

The only other woman I ever knew whom I 
thought as self-sacrificing, as trustful, as devoted 
in her piety, as ready in her sympathy, and earn- 
est in her benevolence, was her namesake, Melissa 
Holbrook Pierson Holbrook, my wife. 

The influence of two such Melissas, one in child- 
hood, the other in manhood, was surely of divine 
appointment, and has ever been regarded as such. 



CHAPTER 11. 



EXPERIENCE IN GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS. 

In 1827, my father sent for me to meet him in 
Groton, Massachusetts. He was giving a course 
of scientific lectures there, and I was entered as a 
pupil in the Groton Academy. Elizur Wright 
was the Principal. We boarded with Rev. John 
Todd, the noted preacher and evangelist. The 
competition of Mr. Todd and father in story-telling 
was amusing and exciting. It was a common say- 
ing in the streets of Groton, "Did you go to hear 
Todd tell stories last Sunday ? " The question had 
reference to his preaching. I was eleven years 
old, and Mr. Todd was the first preacher I had 
ever listened to with interest or profit. His ser- 
mons abounded in illustrations, anecdotes, humor 
and wit, and were just as interesting' to children 
as to adults. He had gathered the orthodox mem- 
bers of the old Congregational Church, who had 
virtually been expelled by the Unitarians from the 
church their fathers had erected, and was building 
a new edifice. The dedication was noted by the 
harnesses of the members being cut, their linch- 
pins being removed, and bv kegs of sulphur being 
(12) 



EXPERIENCE IN GROTON, MASS. 1 3 

rolled into the vestibule. All of which were evi- 
dences of Mr. Todd's power as a preacher and 
organizer. I will give one of Mr. Todd's Andover 
experiences as related by him at the dinner table. 

A senior student returning to the seminary 
from a village, where he had supplied a pulpit, re- 
lated to his room-mate and others that he had been 
waylaid in a patch of woods just out of the village, 
and had been robbed of his watch and pocket- 
book. It was all the worse that his pocketbook 
contained all the money he had — the five dollars 
he had received for preaching. 

Several of the students volunteered to go with 
him the next morning to the place of his misad- 
venture, hoping to aid in tracking and apprehend- 
ing the highwayman. 

On arriving at the place, they found an orchard 
on one side of the road, a pump standing by the 
fence, with the handle projecting toward the 
road. The pocketbook and watch were lying on 
the ground, near the pump, where the frightened 
theologue had thrown them as he started to run 
from the robber. 

Besides giving me the advantages of school, my 
father hired a watchmaker to give me daily training 
in the use of tools. The knowledge and skill there 
obtained, and the practical economy there ac- 
quired, in making poor tools and defective ma- 
terials accomplish their ends, have been of the 
greatest possible advantage in every position in 
which I have since been placed. 



14 . REMIMSCENXES, 

I there learned there was excitement and inter- 
est in overcoming difficulties, rather than in being 
overcome by them. 

I remember hearing my father say for my en- 
couragement : ' 'Anybody can work with good 
tools, but it takes pluck to manage poor ones, and 
a genius to perform his work with none at all." 

The pluck was developed, if anything. My 
worthy mechanic teacher gave me his poorest 
tools to work with, until I had demonstrated that 
I would not spoil his good ones. 

At the same time, father bought me a box of 
drawing instruments, and set me to work in me- 
chanical drawing. I was much interested in this, 
and have ever since made use of the power there 
and then acquired in the training of the hand, eye 
and mind together, in all demands for mechanical 
calculation and invention. The calls for just such 
skill and contrivance as that early training gave 
me, have been varied and numberless, all my 
life long. It was just the training that a good 
Providence only could foresee was necessary in 
the independent, revolutionizing course I have 
been led to pursue in all matters pertaining to 
education. It was this practical combination of 
mechanism and science, which my father still con- 
tinued in Boston, that has made it possible for me 
to sustain myself amid the poverty, and against 
the maledictions and denunciations of otherwise 
good men, in developing a practical system of 
training, which has, to a large extent, in my humble 



EXPERIENCE IN GROTON, MASS. I 5 

opinion, already done much to modify educational 
work everywhere, and which will, with other 
providential means, speedily revolutionize the en- 
tire scope and plan of college instruction. 

My father, about this time, commenced the 
manufacture of the apparatus in Boston, Massa- 
chusetts, which has since borne his name. 

While attending school in Groton, my room*- 
mate and I occasionally took walks in the country. 
There is a beautiful lake east of Groton, some 
three miles, as I recollect it. 'One evening, re- 
turning from this lake, around which we had been 
picking huckleberries, we passed an orchard full 
of fine fruit. The ground was covered under many 
of the trees. We concluded to enter the orchard 
and help ourselves to some of the apples. Passing 
around among the trees, we filled our pockets, eat- 
ing the meanwhile. Being just ready to return to 
the road with our supplies, we heard a voice angrily 
calling after us. My first impulse was to run, but 
being too plucky for that, I walked toward the 
man who was bawling at us. He met me half 
way, saying: "My boy, why didn't you run away 
like a thief, with that other fellow?" My room- 
mate had scampered away down into the cran- 
berry swamp, adjoining the orchard. 

"I would rather pay for the apples I have taken. " 

''Pay for them ? No, no. Come and get all the 
apples you want ; only come and ask me, and I 
will find the best ones for you." 

'Thank you, sir." 



l6 REMINISCENCES. 

"But you -tell that little rapscallion if he ever 
comes this way again, I'll horsewhip hirn." 

More than fifty years after, a Miss Shattuck 
entered school here, from Groton, Massachusetts. 
Enquiring of her one day whereabouts- in Groton 
she lived, she replied : "About two miles, east of 
the old church." On the road out to the lake?" 
*'Yes. " "Did your house stand on the north side 
of the road, with an orchard and cranberry swamp 
on the south side?" "Yes. Why?" Then I 
told her the story of Charley Richards and myself 
stealing apples, and what the farmer said. "That 
is just like my grandfather ; I have heard many 
such things of him, though I do not remember 
him." 



CHAPTER III. 



EXPERIENCE IN BOSTOI 

My father, Josiah Holbrook, was a graduate of 
Yale in 1814. He Avas engaged with Professor 
Silliman as a student and laboratory worker in in- 
troducing chemistry as a practical science to his 
classes. He thus became interested in practical 
scientific work. The difficulty was, that as treated 
in Yale and other colleges, it was entirely beyond 
the public schools, where it was most needed. 
In fact, to this day, laboratory work is, in most 
colleges, deferred to the senior year, and even 
then hardly five per cent, of any graduating class 
engage in it. The class as a class listen to the 
lectures and witness the experiments, with what 
results is well known. Not one college graduate 
now in twenty really knows anything certainly or 
practically of the natural sciences, or is able to 
converse technically or intelligently on scientific 
subjects. On leaving college, father began apply- 
ing his scientific knowledge to farming, in the 
training of about twenty young men to the appli- 
cation of scientific principles in their daily labor. 
They were also pursuing the ordinary college cur- 
2 (17) 



1 8 REMINISCENCES. 

riculum. This was the first manual labor school 
that I have any knowledge of. The young men 
obtained such a power in study on this practical 
plan, that several of them afterward became emi 
nent in the different professions. 

But the manual labor system was a financial 
loss to the originator. It has been a failure in the 
hundreds of attempts made since my father's ex- 
perience. 

His next enterprise was the organizing of lyce- 
ums, and to this end he invented and constructed 
simple and inexpensive articles of chemical and 
philosophical apparatus, reducing the price of an 
outfit from thousands to tens of dollars, thus 
bringing the actualities of scientific laboratory 
work within the reach of lyceums and the pupils 
of public schools. The apparatus now in use in 
our public schools, and in many colleges, was in- 
vented by my father, and first manufactured in his 
shops in Boston. Very few additional articles 
comparatively have been introduced since he left 
the business, even in electricity. 

It thus will be seen that Josiah Holbrook was a 
practical educator, and was among the first to ad- 
vocate the study of natural science. This training 
of the mind and hand together he urged as the 
most effectual method of mental and manly devel- 
opment. 

When fifteen years of age, and all my school- 
mates were going to college, I asked my father 
when I was going to college. He replied: " Al- 



EXPERIENCE IN BOSTON. I9 

fred, I do not expect to send you to college. 
You are getting a better education now than any 
college can give, as colleges are now managed. I 
can give you double the amount of money re- 
quired for a college course in some other way; but 
I do not wish you to waste so much time, and run 
such a risk of ruin as I did. I barely escaped, and 
I am not willing to expose my son to the tempta- 
tions and dangers that I experienced in college 
life." 

So I did not go to college, though I could not 
but think then that I was not very well used. I 
have since, however, fully concurred in my 
father's judgment. 

Soon after this conversation, he proposed, as I 
was working ten hours per day in his apparatus 
manufactory, that I should rise at five o'clock and 
study an hour or two before breakfast, promising 
that he would make a room comfortable for me to 
study in, i.e., lighted and warmed. Said I, "Pa, 
will you call me?" "No," he replied, "you will 
have to wake yourself; but when you have mas- 
tered Day's Algebra I will make you a present of 
a watch." "Will you help me?" "No, you 
can master it yourself" "I don't know; I'll try," 
said I, and accepted the proposition. 

So in about a month I was wearing my watch. 
This was in the winter of 1830-31. I wore that 
watch for ten years or more. 

No stimulus but the power of study has ever 
been needed since that time to rouse me at 



20 REMINISCENCES. 

any fixed time in the morning to pursue my 
studies; 

It encouraged me greatly when one day I over- 
heard my father say, in advocating his plan of 
education (manual labor), that "Alfred was mak- 
ing better progress in his studies while working 
ten hours daily in the shop than most boys who 
were attending school and doing nothing else." 

It was in the second year of my Boston life that 
I asked father to let me attend Mr. Pile's school. 
It was the most popular school in Boston at that 
time, for fitting boys for Harvard or Yale. More 
than this, I had become acquainted with Lowell 
Mason's two boys, about my age, and they were 
attending there. Father smiled, saying, "Alfred, 
you will not like it there; it will only be a hin- 
drance to you." "But pa, I would like to try it, 
and if I don't like it, I won't be obliged to con- 
tinue, I suppose." "Well, all right; here are 
ten dollars to pay your tuition ; the experience 
you will get there may be worth something to 
you." 

I attended one week, and asked father if I 
might quit, saying, "Why, I can learn more in 
one day, besides doing my work, than they go 
over there in three." "I am glad you are satis- 
fied," said father; "the ten dollars were a good 
investment." I was studying Virgil at the time, 
with no regular recitation to father. He, how- 
ever, occasionally quizzed me, to satisfy himself 
that my progress was safe and thorough. On 



EXPERIENCE IN BOSTON. 21 

such occasions, though his criticisms were rigid 
and exacting, I enjoyed them, and not unfre- 
quently asked him to examine me in my studies. 
His reply was almost always something like this: 
"You are doing well enough. I want you to be- 
come independent of me as a student, just as far 
and as soon as possible." 

By this kind and happy management my father 
aroused in me a controlling devotion to study and 
love of work. It has been my own salvation, and, 
I trust, the effectual means of saving and blessing 
thousands of others.^ 

Speaking of the''^sons of Lowell Mason, Mr. 
Winthrop B. Smith, the founder of tJie School- 
book House of the West, before he retired from 
business, told me the following (he was a room- 
mate of mine in Boston) : — 

"I always stop with William Mason, one of the 
firm of Mason Bros., when in New York. Once, 
on arriving about lO a. m., I went directly to Dr- 
Mason's room, where he was sitting at his piano, 
composing a piece of music. He welcomed me 
pleasantly, inquired how long I would remain in 
the city, etc. I went out about my business, but 
returned to dinner. As we were sitting at the 
table the doctor came down and greeted me most 
cordially, saying, ' It is a long time, Mr. Smith, 
since I have seen you ; I fear you don't always 
call when in New York,' showing that he was un- 
conscious of having welcomed me earlier in the 
day. On mentioning this to William, who was 



22 REMINISCENCES. 

not at dinner, he replied : * Oh, father is very much 
absorbed in music. It was only last month, when 
the panic (of 1857) struck us, and we were unable 
to meet our engagement at the bank, that I went 
to father's room, saying, "Father, I want you to 
go to Boston and get twenty thousand dollars; we 
are not able to raise the money here, and we must 
have it or have our note protested." Father re- 
plied: "Well, William, please don't interrupt me; 
I have an idea here that I am trying to work out; 
don't disturb me, I am afraid I shall lose it. " "But 
father, we have to have the money, or we are all 
ruined. You must go to Boston and get it for 
us. We can't do anything there, and you can." 
(The doctor had been a bank director in Boston.) 
'So,' continued William, ' I had to get father's 
coat and boots, and almost drag him to the cars. ' 
He returned in due time with the money. Hand- 
ing it to me, he said: "There, William, I hope 
you will never disturb me again ; I have lost the 
idea, and fear I can not recover it. Never do it 
again, William." '" 

The second centennial of the settlement of Bos- 
ton occurred in 1830. It was celebrated as Boston 
only can do such things. A procession was 
formed at the State House-; the Governor and his 
staff led on horseback ; and were followed by the 
"ancient and honorable artillery. " Distinguished 
citizens and invited guests then came in carriages. 
Two bands furnished music for the march. John 
Quincy Adams was the speaker of the day. The 



EXPERIENCE IN BOSTON. 23 

Old South Church was jammed to its utmost ca- 
pacity ; there Avas no more standing-room even in 
the second gallery. The long stanchions, extend- 
ing from the floor thirty feet to support these gal- 
leries on three sides of the house, possibly gave 
the idea of insecurity. The Old South was the 
oldest church then standing in Boston. This fact 
was taken into consideration also. After the ora- 
tion, which I heard standing near the pulpit on 
the lower floor, an anthem was being performed, 
accompanied by the great organ — the largest then 
on the continent. One of the back seats in the 
upper gallery, on which six or eight men were 
standing, broke with a crash. A panic ensued. 
Everybody rushed for the nearest door. Screams 
of women were heard as they were crushed in the 
stairways. The organist, by some fortuity, inten- 
sified the general fright by placing both his arms 
on the keys, several heavy stops of the organ being 
in connection. In the midst of all this chaos and 
rage of the elements, a thundering voice was heard 
— "There is no danger; the house is as firm as the 
everlasting hills ! " Quiet was instantly restored ; . 
the panic was over; all returned to their places; 
the anthem proceeded, and the exercises closed as 
usual. It was the voice of the god-like that stilled 
the storm — it was Daniel Webster's. 

My father's office was at the corner of Washing- 
ton and School Streets. His office and sales- 
rooms for his apparatus occupied the whole of the 
second story. Carter & Hendee occupied the 



24 REMINISCENCES. 

ground floor as a book-store. It was tJic book- 
store of Boston then ; it is a book-store still. The 
same old two-story building stands there now, 
while contiguous, and all around in every direc- 
tion, are seen immense structures of five and six 
stories. This old corner is an interesting locality 
to me and my children when we visit Boston. 
All who visit Boston take in the Old South, corner 
of Washington and Milk Streets, as one of the 
sights. It is now the repository of all the odd, 
queer, out-of-date articles gathered from old gar- 
rets and other stowaway places, illustrating the 
social usages and bygone customs of earlier days. 
It is an interesting place to spend an hour in. 

The first Sabbath night after I arrived in Bos- 
ton, being then 14 years of age, I was aroused by 
the clang of the Old South bell, about midnight. 
My room was as light as day, though it was a 
stormy and moonless night. I had never seen a 
"fire" before. The cry of "fire" ringing through 
the streets, the jingle of the bells on the fire- 
engines, and the bawling of the trumpets all con- 
tributed to my alarm ; but I had nothing else ta 
do than to He quiet till my father, sleeping in 
another room, should order me out; though I 
thought the room felt hot already. No father's 
voice was heard. I began to think he had gone 
out and forgotten his boys, and was just about to 
get up and take care of myself and get out if the 
fire would let me, when I heard some one say, 
who had just entered the house, that Dr. Beecher's 



EXPERIENCE IN BOSTON, 25 

church was burning. Now I had already learned 
that his church was more than a mile distant from 
Sewall Place, where we were boarding ; my fears 
subsided, I dropped off to sleep, and knew no 
more till morning, when, of course, we all visited 
the ruins. 

Now, it was rather a singular circumstance that, 

as we considered Dr. Beecher the head and front 

* 

of the first temperance movement, we should 
see in the streets near the ruins, piles and piles of 
casks of all sizes, labeled wine, brandy, etc., etc. 
It was, however, explained in a measure, when we 
learned that the cellars of the church were not 
under Dr. Beecher's control. They had been 
used, possibly, by some of his church-members as 
storerooms for this kind of merchandise. I after- 
Avard attended Dr. Beecher's services. He, with 
his congregation, worshiped at the Park Street 
Church. Lowell Mason was the organist and 
choir leader. It was rather amusing to hear 
those say who attended there nearly every Sab- 
bath, on returning from preaching, that Beecher 
had preached the most powerful sermon they ever 
heard. For once this would have been well 
enough ; but as a recurring fact that any man 
had done the most powerful thing ever heard of, 
Avas to me a little funny, to say the least. That 
winter the doctor gave a course of Sunday even- 
ing lectures on Catholicism. Multitudes went 
away from the house on every such occasion, 
unable to find standing room even. 



26 REMINISCENCES. 

The preacher himself found entrance at a back 
window, and was aided by the police in making- 
his way to the pulpit. The Catholic Bishop at^ 
tempted to answer Beecher. I was present at 
one of these attempts — the only time I ever made 
a part of a cathedral congregation. The jam was 
fearful. Though the night was intensely cold, 
the house was hot and foul with exhalations of 
tobacco and whisky. A woman fainted near the 
altar. She had to be sent out over the heads of 
those crowding the aisles. A priest cried out, 
"Open the windows in the galleries!" All the 
upper windows of the immense building were 
opened. Though the night was clear without, 
the cold air entering and sweeping through the 
moist atmosphere produced a dense cloud, ex- 
tending through all the upper part of the build- 
ing. It was a phenomenon. But shortly a fall 
of snow covered all on the lower floor — the only 
snow-storm I ever saw in clear weather, or inside 
of a cathedral. 

We were accustomed to obtain most of our 
hardware for the manufacture of apparatus from 
Bradley's hardware establishment on Washington 
Street, just north of the Old South Church. I 
became well acquainted with the head clerk, 
Thompson. Mr. Bradley had advanced him from 
an errand boy to the position of confidential clerk. 
Contrary to the wishes of his employer, he had 
formed an attachment for his daughter, and the 
attachment was ardently reciprocated. Every in- 



EXPERIENCE IN BOSTON. 2/ 

fluence was used by the parents to prevent the 
match ; the daughter was sent away to school, 
was sent to Europe, but every such means, as 
usual in such cases, only seemed to endear the 
young people to each other the more. They botK 
declared, and always, they would never marry 
without her parents' consent. Their objection to 
the young man as a sonin-law was not known. 
It was conjectured that they had formed a more 
ambitious alliance for their daughter with one of 
the first families of Boston, but this was only con- 
jectured. That there was no objection to his 
moral or business character, was apparent from the 
fact that Mr. Bradley proposed to Thompson that 
if he would give up his design upon the daughter 
he would send him to New Orleans and set him 
up in the hardware business there. 

Thompson accepted the proposition. The 
goods were purchased, a vessel was chartered and 
Thompson was to sail with the goods on a certain 
night. It was supposed that he had gone with 
the vessel. 

The next morning the boy who usually opened 
and swept the store, was unable to open the door. 
There was a key, or other obstruction, in the 
lock. He reported at once to Mr. Bradley, who 
hastened to the store and effected an entrance. 
Nothing was disturbed on the shelves or the cases 
or drawers below. The boy went up into the 
several stories and found everything all right. He 
came down and reported accordingly. He was 



28 REMINISCENCES. 

asked if he had gone into the garret, for Mr. 
Bradley found his own key in the door inside, and 
he feared something terrible. The boy went to 
the garret, and there found Thompson and Miss 
_ Bradley hanging from a rafter dead in each other's 
arms. 

So ended this love story. It was a matter of 
universal horror, and yet of condolence. But the 
discussion of the catastrophe frequently ended 
with something like this. Why didn't they run 
away and get married? or, Why couldn't the old 
folks trust the young man with their daughter, 
when they were willing to trust him with every- 
thing else? 

It was finally ascertained that the parents' ob- 
jection to the young man was, that he was an 
infidel, and they felt they could not consent to 
place their daughter and her children under such 
influences. 

ti After my father had accumulated over $20,000 
in cash and in stock from his apparatus business, 
he planned a tour through all the States, with the 
design of arousing a general and national interest 
in his views and plans of education. Hoping to 
secure legislative action favorable to the general 
organization of lyceums in every town and village, 
he visited nearly every capital and addressed the 
legislature convened, or a committee appointed 
for the purpose. His letters expressed great en- 
couragement that his plans would be generally 
adopted, and that lyceums, through the legislative 



EXPERIENCE IN BOSTON. 2g 

action promised, would become as common as 
public schools, and would exert an influence for 
immeasurable good in turning the minds of the 
people to scientific inquiry and investigation, thus 
developing in an unprecedented manner the agri- 
cultural, manufacturing and mining resources of 
every State and community. He had already se- 
cured the law for the first geological survey in the 
United States. It was accomplished in part by 
placing a small cabinet of fifty minerals on the 
desk of each Senator and Representative in the 
Massachusetts State House. I had the pleasure 
and the advantage of selecting and preparing 
these cabinets under my father's directionr^. 



CHAPTER IV. 



MY TEACHERS. 

My first teacher, whom I do not remember as 
such, was my aunt Theodosia Swift, my mother's 
oldest sister. I heard my aunts and others say 
that my father, not long after my birth, offered 
this aunt a new silk dress as soon as Alfred learned 
to read in the Testament, and that this my first 
teacher obtained before Alfred was three years 
old. Of this I know nothing further than by re- 
port. The first teacher that I do remember, was 
a Miss Julia Ann Tomlinson, who taught a sum- 
mer-school in the old Academy at Derby, which 
stood on Science Hill, near where the old First 
Congregational Church stood, in my early recol- 
lections. Miss Julia Ann was very popular with 
the children. Not infrequently she gave us little 
prizes, of ribbons round the neck with some coin 
attached, sometimes little pictures and drawings 
which she made herself, more frequently perhaps, 
kisses, both for boys and girls, and she was al- 
ways remembered by all her pupils with kindness 
and affection. Her modes of punishment were 
(30) 



MY TEACHERS. 3 I 

not specially peculiar for that day. I remember 
very well of wearing the foolscap, and of sitting 
on the dunce-block, but it was a rare misdemeanor 
that brought down upon me, as a culprit, the pun- 
ishment of sitting beside a little flaxen-haired girl 
two years younger than myself. 

I suppose, though I don't remember distinctly, 
that there was a good deal of whimpering by the 
punishee, but whether it was sham or in earnest, 
I am not able to tell now. But it seems to me 
that I do remember the picture of the little lassie 
who was made the means of punishment. But 
this may be more a matter of imagination than of 
memory. Years afterward, she certainly was 
not a punishment or a bugbear ; but the great- 
est blessing that heaven ever bestowed upon a 
man. She was the mother of all my children. 
Some years after this happened, when my wife 
and I were visiting Derby, and called upon Mrs. 
Julia Ann Tomlinson Blakeman, my recollections 
of her methods of discipline were not fully corrob- 
orated by her statement of the case. Nor did 
the rod of affliction who was with me, realize that 
she had ever been made use of for such a dis- 
ciplinary purpose. Nevertheless, I am confident 
that all those things took place in the manner 
above described, but there is one thing Mrs. Blake- 
man declared to be true, which I had forgotten, 
and that is, she did put the split quill on my nose 
at a certain date for a distinct offense. What the 
offense was, she was unable to recall, but it was 



32 REMINISCENCES. 

something terrible which she would not tell, if she 
could remember. 

My next teacher and the only district-school 
teacher with whom I ever came in contact, I shall 
call Dr. Goodson. He was employed by district 
authorities to bring the school into order, after the 
pupils had behaved so badly that they became un- 
manageable under a college graduate from Yale 
College. ' Dr. Goodson was a thoroughgoing 
teacher, after the principles then in vogue. His 
methods of government were whipping for whis- 
pering, whipping for throwing spit-balls, whipping 
for tardiness, whipping for staying out late at re- 
cess, standing in the corner for not getting lessons 
in time, standing in the corner and holding a book 
out at arm's length, for playing "baker's dozen" 
and "three men Morris;" and sometimes, in rare 
cases when these varieties of discipline failed to 
have their effect, the "foolscap" was applied, and 
the "dunce-block" was resorted to, and the split 
quill placed upon the nose of the offender while 
sitting on the dunce-block. For leaving seats, 
laughing aloud, and other like improprieties, all 
these were combined as being necessary to correct 
waywardness and stubbornness. Looking out of 
the windows was also forbidden, and received the 
penalty of standing up in the corner with the face 
toward the corner. Other teachers of those days 
were accustomed to apply the ferule, but our 
school being near a row of quince trees in an ad- 
joining garden lot, Dr. Goodson found it more con- 



MY TEACHERS. 33 

venient and salutary to apply quince tree sprouts to 
the back of the offender. In extreme cases, the cul- 
prit was compelled to take off his coat, and one or 
more of those quince sprouts were applied, ac- 
cording to the heinousness of the offense. At the 
coming of the first ice, the boys all remained out 
to slide, the girls passing in at the call of the 
ruler rapped on the side of the house. At the 
second or third rap, it being louder than the pre- 
vious one, the boys went in. There were about 
twenty involved in this disregard of regulations 
and good order. We were all called up for the 
administration of suitable penalty. We were mar- 
shaled in line upon the longest clear crack in the 
floor of the room, each toeing the crack. The 
tallest boy, Jim Smith, taller than the teacher him- 
self, stood at the head of the row; Alfred, the 
least of all, stood at the foot. One of the good 
boys, who had not gone out to play at all, but had 
remained in to study, was sent to the aforesaid 
quince trees, with orders to bring in two or three 
dozen whips. The good faithful Doctor applied 
one whip most conscientiously to the back of each 
of the several boys, until, coming to the last one, 
he said, in sympathy and consideration, "Why,. 
Alfred, you are so little, I guess I will let you go 
this time." Now, the Doctor was an honest, 
Christian worker. Whatever he did was done most 
faithfully and conscientiously, and especially that 
of whipping the boys, so that I was very glad just 
3 



34 REMINISCENCES. 

at that moment that I was so little. So much for 
public school discipline. 

/ The methods of instruction were such as were 
prevalent in those days. We were all required to 
do the sums printed in Daboll's Arithmetic, and 
to get the answers, the slates being examined as 
often as they were filled with figures. If any one 
was puzzled and needed help, it was customary for 
him to go and stand by the Doctor's desk, until 
his turn came, when his example would be solved 
on the Doctor's slate, examined by the pupil, and 
the pupil required to work out the same example, 
himself, on his own slate at his own desk. This 
individual system, which is so much lauded nowa- 
days by a certain class of institutions, was then, 
over sixty years ago, in full and successful opera- 
tion, doing its best to make pupils thorough, 
"and not keeping any pupil back, to accommo- 
date the slow ones in the class." To be thorough, 
every one must work every example and get 
every answer, and every example thus wrought, 
must be examined by the Doctor, before further 
progress could be made. I am a little fearful that 
the present advocates of the individual system are 
not quite so thorough, faithful and patient as was 
my old teacher. Dillworth's spelling-book had 
just gone out of date, and Webster's had just come 
in. 

The only classes that I remember of being 
taught as classes in Dr. Goodson's school, were the 
reading and spelling classes. Great attention was 



MY TEACHERSs 35 

paid in those times to the ability to spell all 
the words in the spelling-book, commencing at 
"baker." And if there was any keeping after 
school for the purpose of making up lost time, 
and inflicting punishment for laziness or stupidity, 
it was to learn our spelling lessons. Willet's geog- 
raphy, with its old, blurred and dim maps, was in 
use, but I was not sufficiently advanced to study 
geography with Dr. Goodson. However, the 
same individual system was pursued in the geog- 
raphy class, and he heard a pupil recite whenever 
he felt like it, or the pupil was prepared. The di- 
rections given to the pupils in common, and to in- 
dividuals especially, in the reading class, were such 
as these: "You must not read so fast." "You 
must not skip your words." "You must pronouce 
every word distinctly." "You must mind your 
, stops ; if you don't do better I will count for you 
at every stop, one for every comma, two for every 
semi-colon, three for every colon, and six for every 
period." These are my most salient recollections 
of my district school experience, so far as indoor 
work was concerned. The plays of those times, 
more than sixty years ago, were very similar to 
the plays of the present time. Some of these 
were "base-ball," in which we chose sides, "one 
hole cat," "two hole cat," "knock up and catch," 
"blackman," "snap the whip," skating, sliding 
down hill, rolling the hoop, marbles, "prisoner's 
base," "football," mumble the peg," etc. 

In the school-room, the only apparatus was slate 



36 REMINISCENCES. 

and pencil, ferule, and the quince tree whip. No 
blackboards, no desks, save an inclined wide 
board in front of the seats stretched along the 
side of the house, with a shelf underneath the long 
desk; no prepared fuel, the boys being required 
to cut and bring in wood by turns. The stove had 
been very recently introduced ; the open fireplace 
still remained to receive the debris of the catas- 
trophies and mischief of the day, and the remnants, 
of the dinner baskets, etc. Such were the facilities 
and appointments of my only district school. 

The privileges are implied in these questions, 
" AJay I speak?" "May I go out?" "May I go 
to the fire?" " May I get some water?" "May 
I sit with John?" " May I borrow a pencil?" AIL 
of which interrogations were mostly complied with, 
by our really kind and faithful teacher. It was 
customary in those early days in all schools in 
New England to use the Testament as a reading 
book. And when Sallie Morris, an adopted girl, 
read, "And he rebuked the winds, and there was 
a great clam,'' we were not so pious or devout 
that we could not smile aloud on that, and like oc- 
casions. When the aforesaid boy, Jim Smith, 
who did not enjoy his school-work especially, 
and for that reason was not a remarkably prompt 
and ready reader, requested me, sitting beside 
him one morning, to help him when he came to 
the hard word Jerusalem in the sentence, "Christ 
went up," etc., and I helped him by saying, "« 
bean-pole,'' Jim brought down the house, to use a 



MY TEACHERS. 37 

■modern expression. For this successful accomplish- 
ment I might have had my bones broken, if I had 
not had a sufficiency of protection and protectors. 

Those school days were on the whole profitable, 
and the children, for aught I know, made about 
as good improvement as is found in the more 
recent forms of punishment, incitement and disci- 
pline outside of true normal training. 

My next teacher was my father, who, having 
been absent from Derby for three or four years, in 
the business of scientific lecturing, in the various 
towns and villages of New England, returned, and 
in company with Truman Coe, his brother-in-law, 
took possession of the old academy, and organized, 
developed and built up very rapidly, a large and 
prosperous school. I remember, quite distinctly, 
the boys and young men from all parts of the 
United States, and from nearly all the leading towns 
and cities of New England, i My experiences in 
this school, under my father's direction, were al- 
together delightful and profitable. He gave courses 
of lectures with apparatus of his own construc- 
tion, upon physics and chemistry, and had classes 
in botany and astronomy, in all of which classes I 
found myself (being the youngest, then about nine 
years of age) deeply interested and thoroughly ab- 
sorbed. Woodbridge's Geography was introduced 
at this period ; classes were formed in all the different 
branches, and regular recitations were conducted, 
with a system of grading ; although I do not re- 
member that any special prizes were offered, save 



■38 REMINISCENCES. 

that these grades were reported to the parents of 
the boys and girls in attendance. The boys and 
girls were incited to collect minerals from the 
the bowlders which abound in all that region, my 
father aiding them in analyzing, naming and classi- 
fying them. I was as eager as a boy well could 
be in the examination of all the odd places where 
others were not accustomed to go. One day, in 
digging and searching in a deep old ravine on 
Science Hill, I came upon a peculiar-looking 
bowlder, which excited my curiosity. I made out 
to break it open. The yellow, glittering substance 
which revealed itself to my astonished eyes, ex- 
cited me beyond measure. Taking a small frag- 
ment of the golden discovery in my hand, and 
running at the very top of my speed to the 
academy, with great excitement I presented to 
father this wonderful find of "solid gold," not 
telling him where I had found it. ' ' Well, Alfred, " 
said father, ' 'you have made a discovery, but you 
never heard of the great discovery they made at 
Jamestown, Virginia, did you ?" "No, sir. What 
was it?" "Why, they did worse than you; they 
loaded a ship with the same kind of material you 
have here, and took it to England, supposing that 
they had all made their fortunes. But sad was 
their disappointment when they found that in- 
stead of gold it was merely ' Fool's Gold, ' sul- 
phuret of iron. So you are not the first one that 
Jias been made a fool of by that mineral." It is 
not necessary to say that my feelings collapsed, 



MY TEACHERS. 39' 

though I was hardly willing to take the word of 
my father against my own eyes. But he con- 
vinced me by taking some portion of it and pound- 
ing it, when the hammer reduced it to mere dust. 
Taking then a gold coin which he happened to 
have in his pocket, he showed me there was quite 
ar difference between true gold and the false. 
/ It was customary for father to make excursions 
(^^ith the pupils, about the neighborhood, for 
the purpose of finding every variety of mineral 
that existed in the bowlders, also specimens for 
botanical analysis. These excursions were en- 
joyed exceedingly. I remember an excursion to 
Monroe, Connecticut, where I afterward taught. 
The object of this excursion was to investigate a 
mine where fluor spar and copper were said to be 
found. The place was reached and thoroughly 
examined, and some inferior specimens of fluor 
spar were obtained, but much better specimens 
were purchased from those in the neighborhood. 
Our most interesting excursion was on the first 
steamboat ever on the Housatonic River, having 
been brought there by Captain Thomas Vose, with 
the design of plying between Derby and New York 
City. Our excursion only extended as far as 
Stratford, at the mouth of the Housatonic River. 
The object of the excursion was the finding of 
seashells upon the beach, of digging clams, and 
if possible to find the Jiabitat of oysters. By 
some defect in the machinery, we failed to reach 
our destination. Nevertheless, it was a delight- 



40 REMINISCENCES. 

ful day, and all the students and others enjoyed 
it immensely. A circumstance happened in the 
dining-saloon, which I heard my father relate 
afterward several times, in his conversations, as 
a rare instance of self-control. 

Now, sea-captains like Captain Vose, who had 
retired but very recently from the sea, are not 
proverbial for the gentleness, purity or piety of 
their expressions, even on comparatively slight 
provocations. Captain Vose was not above the 
average of his class, as his neighbors well knew; 
but on this occasion, as the servant was carrying 
out on a large tray as many dishes as he could 
manage, by some means or other he let the tray 
and its contents fall, shattering the dishes, and 
scattering the fragments. Captain Vose, being 
present, instead of ripping and tearing with his 
oaths and curses, as was expected, simply re- 
marked : "John, I am really afraid it will take you 
too long to gather up all these pieces ; I think I 
will have to help you." 

The popularity of the school increased, and con- 
siderable patronage was drawn from New York 
City, the West Indies and Canada. Many students 
came from wealthy families, and their use of 
money was lavish, and in most cases quite detri- 
m.ental to their progress, health and personal 
habits. The only difficulty that I remember that 
my father had with any of these young men, was 
with young Poindexter, from Georgia. He was 
accustomed to bet heavily on any species of 



MV TEACHERS. 4I 

gambling on which he could find others willing to 
bet with him. One Saturday afternoon, he offered 
to bet ^25 with anybody against ;^5, that he could 
shoot a ball through a suspended silk handkerchief 
fluttering in the wind. There was a drinking fel- 
low about, who was foolish enough to take up the 
bet, or at least said he would bet ;^5 against $2^, 
that Poindexter could not do it. Poindexter 
failed in the experiment, and, as it happened, did 
not have the $2^ to pay the bet with. But in order 
to ease off the matter, he bet the same fellow that 
he could not take up an empty flour barrel, lying 
near, and carry it to the top of the hill, and never 
lay it down. It was but a short distance to the 
top of the hill. This was $i against ^25. "Beers 
Hotchkiss, " as we always called the fellow, started 
with the barrel toward the top of the hill, with his 
usual springhalt when he was tipsy. The boys at 
the same time cried: "Beers, 7iever lay it down, 
remember ! Never Xdij it down !" "Oh, you go to 
h , I will take care of that." And so he as- 
cended the hill with the crowd accompanying him. 
He then found a spike projecting from the side of 
a house, on which he hung his barrel, and won 
the second bet. Poindexter was so chagrined, 
and the boys laughed at him so heartily, that he 
charged around extensively, and did considerable 
damage, he himself not being entirely free from the 
effects of liquor. The matter came up to my 
father for adjudication, and the citizens, with 
some of the leading pupils, declared that such con- 



42 REMINISCENCES. 

duct should not be passed by, that the young 
man ought to be expelled. He was a disgrace to 
the school, and a nuisance to the town, etc. 
While of course father did not in any sense apolo- 
gize for Poindexter, or extenuate the folly and 
wickedness of his conduct, he declared that who- 
ever had been wronged should prosecute him. It 
was not his business to control Poindexter, or any 
other pupils, in any relation^ other than those im- 
mediately connected with the school. 

My recollections of the closing of the school are 
very faint, but this I know, that at the close of 
the second year, father left the school, and com- 
menced his career, the establishing of lyceums. 

My next teacher was Mr. Saunders, a recent 
graduate of Yale, who had opened a private 
school in Derby Narrows during my absence. 
With him I commenced the study of Latin and 
algebra. The book I used, which father had 
given me, was Colburn's Primary Algebra, in 
which all the subjects were developed by exam- 
ples rather than by rules. No answers were given 
to the problems. Mr. Saunders had never stud- 
ied this text-book, and when I thought he would 
be puzzled with any knotty problem to be solved, 
I took some pride in working it out myself, and 
after I had done so, asking Mr. Saunders to work 
it for me. There was a student who had been 
suspended from West Point boarding at Mrs. 
Allen's house, the same place where Mr. Saun- 
ders boarded. He informed me that Mr. Saun- 



MY TEACHERS. 43 

ders had come to him several times to solve the 
said examples. When I told the West Pointer 
that I had solved them^, but was amusing myself 
by seeing Mr. Saunders stalled, he would hardly 
believe me, but took it upon himself to test my 
assertions and satisfy himself that I had solved 
every example that Mr. Saunders had brought 
him. We, from that time, formed a kind of con- 
spiracy against the teacher, to see how much shuf- 
fling and prevarication we could get out of him. 
Mr. Saunders was preparing to be a minister, 
and we were wicked enough to make use of 
our opportunity to place him (in our estimation) 
in a very unfavorable light. But the power de- 
veloped in the combination of circumstances con- 
nected with it seemed to assure me that I could 
pursue mathematics to any extent without the aid 
of any teacher. I was then but twelve years of 
age. This power has been tested since, and I 
need hardly say that I have never called upon any 
one for help in reading any of the mathematical 
authors that I have used in the various classes 
that I have taught since. Of course I do not nar- 
rate this circumstance to vindicate or show my ap- 
proval of the principle, or want of principle, which 
evoked this mathematical power, but I narrate it 
to show how Mr. Saunders, as my teacher, 
wrought in me a decided advance, and by his 
training, or want of training, established a de- 
gree of independence which, perhaps, no honest 



44 REMINISCENCES. 

teacher, as teachers are mostly accustomed to 
manage, would have done. 

I commenced the study of Latin also, at least 
of Latin grammar, with Mr. Saunders. There 
were several other pupils in the class, young ladies 
and gentlemen, also my brother Dwight, living 
then at my grandfather's. The study of Latin 
grammar was chiefly memorizing paradigms of 
nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, etc.; also rules, 
remarks, observations, exceptions and explana- 
tions in an endless array. My younger brother 
was in the same class, and rather than submit to 
such continued demands upon his patience and in. 
dustry, without seeing any possible returns, he 
preferred to submit to a feruling once or twice a 
day. Nor was he ever persuaded afterward to 
give any serious study to Latin, or any other 
branch, such was the determined hostility that he 
conceived to study under this abominable manage- 
ment. But this was the common and accepted 
method of teaching Latin in those days, and vir- 
tually continues to the present day, to a large ex- 
tent, with most teachers who have been trained in 
colleges or by college teachers. Well may such 
an abuse of the human mind, merely to follow the 
long sanctioned usage of college instruction, be 
called the college fetich. 

The only time that I was ever whipped in 
school was by this same college teacher, Mr. 
Saunders. It happened on this wise: As was the 



MY TEACHERS. 45 

custom, I was writing in my copy-book after the 
copies set by the teacher, when my seat-mate, a 
man of twenty years, commenced pulHng my 
copy-book away from me. Of course, I held on 
to it. Mr. Saunders, seeing the contest, and feel- 
ing that he ought to check the disorder oc- 
casioned, and that it was necessary to make an 
example of somebody, called me up (the little, 
weak one), and belabored one hand after the 
other most cruelly, with a heavy ferule, giving 
the real cause of the disturbance scarcely a re- 
proof. The indignation of the students was be- 
yond control, and Mr. Saunders found himself the 
object of increased disfavor and hostility until he 
was compelled to close the school. 

Soon after this I was called by my father 
to Groton, Mass., where I found him boarding 
with the Rev. John Todd. I was entered as a 
student of Groton Academy, under the instruction 
of Mr. Elizur Wright. Both these gentlemen 
have since become celebrated, each in his line ; 
the Rev. Todd as a noted evangelist and popular 
preacher, and by his founding several educational 
institutions. His biography, written by his son, 
is more exciting and interesting than any novel. 
Mr. Todd was my special admiration as a preacher, 
story-teller, mechanic and friend. His interest in 
my studies was a great incitement to the highest 
possible effort. •. I was placed in classes consisting 
almost entirely of adults preparing for teaching 
and for college, about three weeks after they had 



46 REMINISCENCES. 

commenced their study in arithmetic, EngHsh 
grammar and natural philosophy. My pride and 
ambition were to pass a better examination than 
any of these young ladies and gentlemen at the 
close of the term, and such was the energy 
and industry aroused by the combined manage- 
ment of Mr. Todd and Mr. Wright, that when the 
term expired I was assured by Mr. Wright that I 
stood among the very first in this class of adults, 
being myself a little spindling boy of twelve years. 
I remember Mr. Wright as the best teacher, aside 
from my father, that I ever had. His ingenuity 
in planning methods of exciting enthusiasm in his 
students, and his genial bearing toward us all, 
had a peculiar influence upon me, who had just 
come from under a regime so austere and unrea- 
sonable and unjust as that of Mr. Saunders. It is 
true, Mr. Wright's methods were college methods, 
chiefly memorizing the text-book and working 
the examples and getting the answers; but the 
spirit of the school, and the respect that all the 
pupils had for the kindness and genial spirit of 
our teacher, made work which had before been 
very repulsive quite attractive and exciting. I 
don't remember that he ever punished a pupil or 
kept one after school, or, in fact, had any special 
occasion even for administering rebuke. Mr. 
Wright in those days was an acceptable member 
of the Congregational Church, of which John 
Todd was the pastor. Since then, however, he 
has been a leader in all sorts of infidel operations. 



MY TEACHERS. 4/ 

Another of my worthy teachers, who was not 
professionally such, was Dr. Samuel Beech, of 
Stamford, Connecticut. He married my aunt, 
Mary Swift, and was a popular physician in Stam- 
ford and for all that region. My health failing the 
second time in Massachusetts, I returned to Derby, 
When sufficiently recovered, I was invited by Dr.v^ 
Beech to spend some time with him. Soon after 
going there, I obtained the position of assistant 
postmaster in the distributing office of that place. 
My business training in the post-office has been of 
very considerable value to me ever since. An im- 
mense amount of mail matter passed through this 
post-office, coming from all quarters, and being 
distributed from this Central District Office. The 
worthy postmaster, a Mr. Brown, was a farmer 
of very considerable business ability, an ardent 
Democratic politician, and a very genial gentle- 
man. He made my position a very pleasant one. 
Several clerks were employed during the hours of 
distribution of mail. I was, however, in charge 
of the office at other hours, and with the help of 
another clerk, kept the books of the office. Long 
tiers of boxes and pigeon-holes were ranged in 
cases for the distribution of the mail matter. On 
one occasion, the postmaster being present, aid- 
ing us in the distribution, having taken from the 
mail-bag a package too large to handle, placed 
part of it, some twenty or thirty letters, on the 
top of one of these cases. This pile of letters re- 
mained there for three weeks, and might have re- 



48 KEMINISCE^'CES. 

mained there much longer, had I not taken into 
my head to dust off the tops of these cases. The 
pile of letters was discovered, and was found to 
be valuable letters, all from New Orleans to Bos- 
ton, containing, nobody knows how much of 
money and drafts. How much interference with 
business this accident occasioned, one can only 
conjecture ; but doubtless much delay and disap- 
pointment to all parties concerned. 

Dr. Beech was especially kind, and cordially in- 
terested in my well-being. A very intelligent and 
well-read gentleman ; he delighted to draw me out 
on all subjects on which I was competent to talk, 
frequently taking me in his sulky on his profes- 
sional visits, and occupying the time of our rides 
in the most agreeable and exciting lines of conver- 
sation. His object was undoubtedly to aid me in 
rapid, correct and coherent expression. This was 
not, however, done in the line of instruction, but 
rather for the purpose of mutual entertainment, 
he being a man of forty and I a boy of sixteen 
years. The Doctor had been a great reader him- 
self, and had traveled more or less, and was 
familiar with current literature, and had a good 
library. He did not spare any of these resources 
in making my stay with him interesting and use- 
ful. After the distributing post-office was removed 
to New York City, the Doctor, wishing to furnish 
me something to do, purchased quite an extensive 
circulating library, and a considerable stock of 
drugs, putting me in charge of both. This, he 



, MY TEACHERS. 49 

said, would furnish me an opportunity of extend- 
ing my reading, as the books he selected were 
such as I desired to read. Almost daily, or when- 
ever an opportunity offered, he was ready to con- 
verse with me upon any topic which I had read, 
or any subject in which he was interested. 

Having previously become acquainted with Dr. 
Jennings, and having known something of his 
theory about medicine, I took it upon myself to 
venture the opinion that all medicines were in- 
jurious any further than they excited the imagina- 
tion of the patient, and by that means affording 
help to the working of the resources of nature 
in restoration to health. This was a new subject 
of discussion and comment, the Doctor maintain- 
ing and demonstrating, I have no doubt to his 
own satisfaction, that medicines under his own pre- 
scriptions were generally effectual as remedies. 
He cited numerous examples where disease had 
continued for weeks and months, and yielded im- 
mediately to his application of the proper remedies. 
I still maintained on my side of the argument that 
in every such case it might be possible that the 
disease had reached its crisis about the time that 
the medicine had been administered, and that the 
patient would probably have recovered quite as 
quickly, if not more quickly, if the supposed 
remedy had not been used. Thus the Doctor and 
I kept up the discussion, always returning to it 
whenever other subject matter failed. The Doc- 
tor was very patient with my pertinacity, and per- 
4 



50 REMINISCENCES. 

haps did not more than half believe that I was in 
earnest, nor was I very sure of my ground. The 
Doctor, however, was one of my most interesting 
teachers, and aided me very much, as was his ob- 
ject, in enlarging my talking vocabulary. I had 
written considerably before this, but never enjoyed 
so desirable an opportunity of expressing myself 
coherently and argumentatively with a competent 
interlocutor. I remember the Doctor with a great 
deal of satisfaction and gratitude. 

In illustrating the Doctor's character still further, 
I will briefly relate an incident occurring after he 
removed to Bridgeport, Connecticut. The lead- 
ing physician in Bridgeport had been a Dr. Sum- 
mers, an ardent politician. The dissatisfaction 
which prevailed among the leading families of 
Bridgeport, with the moral character of Dr. Sum- 
mers, was perhaps what led them to invite Dr. 
Beech from Stamford to Bridgeport. He speedily 
secured a good practice in Bridgeport, to the no 
small discomfiture of Dr. Summers, who spared no 
opportunity of traducing and abusing Dr. Beech 
behind his back. He had his emissaries here and 
there and everywhere with special instructions to 
misrepresent the Doctor's practice, and to set in 
circulation false reports, not only against his pro- 
fessional work, but also against his personal char- 
acter. But the Doctor's friends were on the alert, 
and the efforts of Dr. Summers recoiled upon him- 
self. 

A traveler had stopped at the hotel where Dr. 



MY TEACHERS. 5 I 

Summers was accustomed to hold forth, and 
where, indeed, he had his office, and was taken 
sick there. Dr. Beech was called to attend to the 
case. As he entered the office of the hotel to 
inquire where the patient could be found, he saw 
Dr. Summers. Walking up to him, he very geni- 
ally offered his hand, and passed the compliments 
with him as he would with any other gentleman, 
regardless of all the vile work of Dr. Summers. 
As Dr. Beech passed out of the office, the by- 
standers expressed their surprise that the two 
■doctors should meet so kindly, who were at 
swords' points — they only having heard Summers' 
side of the matter. Summers replied: "Oh, well, 

Beech is such a gentleman, that I can't 

do a thing with him, anyhow. I might as well 
let him run and do his worst." 

Another instance of Dr. Beech's penetration 
and general information I remember very dis- 
tinctly. My Aunt Mary and I were sitting at the 
dinner table, when Dr. Beech, coming in hastily, 
said: "Alfred, there is a gentleman over here at 
the hotel, a splendid-looking man, a magnificent 
specimen ; I want you to go and see him ; I never 
saw so remarkable a head in all my life." I went 
over immediately with the doctor, and we passed 
through the hall toward the door into the dining- 
room. The moment I saw the stranger, I recog- 
nized him as Daniel Webster, and announced 
the fact to Dr. Beech, saying, also, that I had my 
suspicions that it was he ; for I thought there was 



52 REMINISCENCES. 

no Other man in America, or elsewhere, who had 
the intellect which his physiognomy indicated. I 
had seen Mr. Webster frequently in Boston. 

My grandfather Holbrook I never knew, as he 
died about the time of my birth ; but my maternal 
grandfather, Zephaniah Swift, holds a venerated 
place among my teachers. Among my earliest 
recollections are my pleasant visits and play-days- 
with Aunt Persis and Uncle Urbane, They were 
respectively two and four years older than I ; but 
we were much together in my childhood life, as 
schoolmates and as playmates. Although our 
Sabbaths were of the Puritan cast, subject to the 
rigorous restraints coming down from the previ- 
ous Puritan ancestors, and it was unlawful to 
whistle and wicked to find one's self in any kind 
of amusement, or in reading any books that were 
not of the most devout character; yet, by some 
means, we managed to make our Sabbaths quite 
tolerable, and it was really a treat for me to spend 
the Sabbath at my grandfather's with this uncle 
and aunt. Then again, there were spinning visits 
and social visits and Thanksgivings as extra occa- 
sions, when all Puritan restraints seemed to be 
forgotten, and young, joyous life seemed to make 
reprisals for its subjugation on Sabbath and fast- 
days. 

Now, it was both unlawful and wicked to play 
ball on fast-day, and none of my associates in 
town were ever known to engage in such unholy 
enterprises and sinful amusements on fast-days; 



MV TEACHERS. 53 

but Other wicked boys, with whom I had nothing 
to do, made it their special dehght and boast to 
get together in some quiet, concealed place, and 
enjoy themselves, more especially because it was a 
violation of law. Not infrequently, however, they 
found the constable after them, or other officers 
of the peace. On ol^e occasion I remember hear- 
ing one of those bad boys relate with great gusto 
a trick they served the constable, wdio had gone 
after them. They managed to place themselves 
on the remote side of a deep ditch, across which 
they had thrown a couple of planks. These planks 
they had carefully sawed underneath, so that any 
one stepping upon them would be sure to go 
down with the planks into the water. They, of 
course, were playing near the planks, and when' 
the officer came they took to their heels, but did 
not retreat so far but that they could see the fun 
and hear the officer call for help. They gathered 
about him and offered to help him out if he would 
agree not to apprehend them. The water was 
very cold, and after he had floundered around for 
awhile, the boys found a rail, and helped him out. 
Soon after, this blue law, perhaps the only 
one in the Connecticut Code, was repealed. 
Then the boys thought no more of playing 
on fast-days than on any other. The testimony 
of my grandfather and grandmother, and of 
all my aunts and uncles, against such wicked- 
ness, and the expressions of contempt, mingled 
"with pity, in which they depicted those engaged 



54 REMINISCENCES. 

in these law-breaking amusements, no doubt had 
their influence in training us children and grand- 
children to a respect for the laws and for the pro- 
prieties of life. Our Sabbaths, however, always 
ended at sundown, having begun the night previ- 
ous at sundown. No cows were milked before 
sundown on Sabbath, nor other chores done, but 
Saturday night all work was completed and laid 
aside before sundown. This arrangement at my 
grandfather's, which was also adhered to by all 
my Presbyterian relatives, involved me once in a 
sad dilemma. It was in the springtime, when 
hoop-rolling was having its turn, an amusement 
in which I thought I excelled, and therefore en- 
joyed, being able to roll the hoop farther and 
■faster than any of my competitors. So it happened 
one cloudy Sunday afternoon, when I had not 
consulted the clock or the almanac very carefully 
to ascertain what time the sun was setting, or was 
about to set, I was out on the street rolling my 
hoop. This being duly reported to my grand- 
parents, caused them a great deal of grief That 
their grandson should be so lawless, and have sa 
little respect for their feelings, as to roll a hoop in 
the public streets on Sabbath day, was almost 
more than they could bear. This happened when 
I was about eight or nine years of age, as nearly 
as I can remember. I only relate it to show the 
interest that my grandparents took in my moral 
training. When I came to explain to them that I 
was mistaken about the time, and thought the sun 



MY TEACHERS. 55 

was down, and had no design whatever of break-* 
ing the Sabbath, and would not have done so for 
anything, their grief was moUified and their good 
will restored. 

My grandfather's house was frequently called 
the " Ministers' Tavern." It was certainly a place 
of very frequent resort for ministers of all classes, 
especially for those who had earned the opprobri- 
ous title of "Everlasting Candidate." I have 
known such individuals to remain at my grand- 
father's for weeks, and be treated with all courtesy 
and kindness. One especially, Mr. Griswold, I 
hold in anything but sacred remembrance. It 
was customary for the boys to occupy one side of 
the gallery of the Presbyterian Church and the 
girls the other. It was a hard task for the boys 
to give their continued attention to the long, 
prosy sermons of those days, and it was not an 
uncommon thing for a group of boys in the gal- 
lery to engage in some more edifying, or at least, 
more amusing, occupation than that of listening 
to the preacher. On one occasion like this, 
when Mr. Griswold was occupying the pulpit, 
some one or two boys giggled loud enough 
to attract Mr. Griswold's attention. Shutting his 
Bible with a violent noise, he said: "Boys, boys, 
boys ! there in the gallery, make less noise ! I 
am afraid you will wake your parents below!" 
No doubt the parents were aroused by this time. 

Mr. Griswold had a peculiar management of his 
eyes. It seemed to us boys that, while one eye 



56 REMINISCENCES. 

was directed to his manuscript, which he read in 
continuity, the other eye was wandering around 
the galleries, looking after the boys, to see what 
they were about. After this attack upon our 
peace and amusements, we became a little more 
discreet, and, perhaps, practiced more conceal- 
ment in our arrangements for our amusements. 

My grandfather took immediate action upon the 
subject of temperance as soon as Dr. Lyman 
Beecher's twelve sermons reached him. He spared 
no effort to secure the signatures to the pledge 
against the use of distilled liquors from all the 
members of his church and congregation. To this 
end he invited Mr. Brewster, of carriage-making 
fame, from New Haven, and a Mr. Gilbert, a re- 
formed drunkard, to lecture in his church on the 
subject of temperance. These were the first tem- 
perance lectures I ever heard. Mr. Brewster, being 
an educated man, gave an ornate and somewhat 
effective exhortation on the subject of temperance, 
but Mr. Gilbert carried the audience with him. 
In relating his experiences, his fall, his sufferings, 
and the wrongs he had inflicted on his family and 
on the church, his deliverance by means of the 
pledge, he swayed the audience, though an uned- 
ucated man, as I had never known before; now in 
tears and sobs all over the house, then again in ir- 
repressible laughter. The result of these lectures 
was, that when the pledge was circulated, every 
member of my grandfather's church signed the 
pledge, except two deacons, Deacon S and 



MY TEACHERS. 5/ 

Deacon C . Grandfather had previously used 

his personal influence as far as possible with 
these gentlemen. Each one had his own special 
reason for not signing the pledge, and they were 
such reasons as are prevalent at this time. "I 
don't want to sign away my liberty ; I don't drink 
except when I need it ; I have no objection to others 
signing it if they feel it necessary. If I ever ieel 
so, I will sign the pledge. As I now feel, it will 
be declaring that I have lost control of myself, and 
am obliged to pledge myself in order to keep 
from drinking too much, which certainly is not 
the case." The more my grandfather talked with 
these gentlemen, the more he became convinced 
that they, more than any others, needed the re- 
straining influence of the pledge, and that they 
were both, to a greater or less degree, the slaves 
of cider brandy. Hoping still to reach them and 
to extricate them from the snare in which he 
found them, grandfather employed Dr. Hewitt, ot 
Bridgeport, a powerful preacher, to fill his pulpit 
on a certain Sabbath, and to preach or lecture on 
temperance in the evening. Practicing perhaps a 
little wiliness, it was not announced on what sub- 
ject Dr. Hewitt would preach in the evening, my 
grandfather fearing that since so much had been 
said and done with and for the deacons, that they 
would fail to be present if they knew that Dr. 
Hewitt was to preach on temperance, especially 
as they would know, of course, that the preach- 
ing was aimed chiefly at them. A large congre- 



58 REMINISCENCES. 

gation assembled, Dr. Hewitt's reputation as an 
orator being- sufficient to fill a house anywhere. 
The deacons were present. What his text was, 
I do not remember, but the sermon was a temper- 
ance sermon, and effectual in a manner that grand- 
father hardly anticipated. It was one of those 
sermons that everybody listens to with unremitting 
attention and cumulative interest. The applica- 
tion of his sermon was something like this : 
"Brethren, from all these considerations which I 
have presented, you will agree with me that that 
one of our fellow-citizens, who does not permit his 
name and his influence to be used to check such a 
dire flood of iniquity and destruction as is sweep- 
ing over the land, and carrying with it so many 
thousands of victims, is, to say the least, charge- 
able with a want of good citizenship and of patri- 
otism. But if there should be any member of this 
church, or of any other church of Christ, who re- 
fuses to use his utmost endeavors for the benefit 
of his fellow-men and for the salvation of those for 
whom Christ has died, and for whom he has 
pledged himself to work on every occasion and op- 
portunity that the Lord and Master shall give him 
to save the sinner from death and his soul from 
eternal destruction, we can hardly say for such a 
church-member, who refuses to sign the pledge, 
that he is using his full privilege, as a living 
member of the church of Christ, to honor his Mas- 
ter. Such being the case, what shall we say 
of that deacon, ordained for special service as 



MY TEACHERS. $9 

leader in the ranks of Christian wokers, as an as- 
sistant of the pastor in his blessed work, as a man 
who shall be ' void of offense, ' and ' as a lively 
stone in the house of God ' — what shall we say of 
that deacon who refuses to give his name and his 
entire influence and character, however much self- 
denial it may require of him ; — what shall we say, I 
repeat it, of such a deacon, who proves such a 
recreant to the vows of his ordination, and his love 
for his Savior and of his love for souls ?' * With 
this climax the Doctor held himself silent for per- 
haps half a minute, when he hissed a whisper, 
which was distinctly heard in the most remote 
part of the building, like this: "Thank God, rum- 
drinking deacons will not live forever." With this 
the sermon closed. The two deacons never ap- 
peared in the church again. Deacon C 

never was known to attend any church or any re- 
ligious services anywhere, to his death. He died 

a drunkard. Deacon S , after some lapse of 

time, attended the Episcopal services ; whether or 
not he joined the Episcopal Church, I do not 
know. He died in consequence of a slight wound, 
which the doctors said might have healed in a 
few days, but so filled with alcohol was his entire 
system, that this wound could not be healed; 
inflammation and gangrene set in, and speedily re- 
sulted in death. So that grandfather's efforts in 
behalf of his deacons, at least removed them out 
of the way as stumbling blocks, to the possibly 
more rapid hastening of their lamentable end. 



60 REMINISCENCES. 

The Mr. Gilbert, of whom I was speaking, con- 
tinued for seven years as a most effective worker 
in the temperance cause. Before he gave himself 
up to drink, he had been a worthy mechanic, had 
accumulated property, had secured a good home; 
but in consequence of yielding to this passion, 
had lost control of a good business, mortgaged his 
home for all it \yas worth, lost his standing in 
society, and given up his membership in the Meth- 
odist Church. When, however, he reformed, and 
became an outspoken temperance man, an inde- 
fatigable and powerful worker in the cause, he was 
taken back into the church, and restored to his 
former standing as a local preacher. He also re- 
covered his property, and was enjoying his posi- 
tion in society, his leadership in politics, and his 
control of a lucrative business, as before he had 
abandoned himself to drink ; in fact, he seemed to 
be more than reinstated in his former prosperity 
and standing. His house was the home of the 
Methodist ministers, and his daughter was engaged 
to a young circuit-rider. At the wedding, wine 
was introduced ; wine, ciders and fermented drinks 
not yet being tabooed by the pledge. As the 
wine was passed around once or twice, Mr. Gilbert 
refused it. His daughter, noticing the fact, took 
a wineglass from the table, ran across the room to 
her father, and asked him if he W'ould not take 
some wine with the rest of the party. He replied, 
"No, daughter, I do not wish for any wine." 
**But," said she, " Father, I was never married 



MY TEACHERS. 6 1 

before, I never expect to be married again ; you 
will take some "wine now at the first wedding that 
has ever taken place in your house ; I am sure you 
will take some wine with me, papa." He took the 
wine and drank it, and in a few minutes went 
across the room and took another glassful, and 
then another and another, until, before the party 
retired, it was found the good man was drunk. This 
mastery of liquor over his will-power, thus re- 
established by his daughter's persuasions, con- 
tinued, so far as I know, to his death. Remark is 
superfluous. 

/ My grandfather's house was the frequent resort 
»f the President and Professors of Yale College, 
There I was accustomed to listen to the conversa- 
tion of those worthy and dignified gentlemen ; for 
as well as I can remember, I found it convenient 
whenever any such distinguished company was ex- 
pected to be there, my Aunt Persis apprising me 
and urging me to go home with her. Thus, in 
early life, up to the time of my leaving Derby, I 
enjoyed the best opportunities of seeing and know- 
ing the very, finest specimens of human intellect 
and dignity. From the first, I enjoyed the con- 
versations that went on at the table and elsewhere, 
and spared no pains or reasonable opportunity to 
be present as a listener. Then again, I v/as sent 
with the horse and buggy to New Haven, to bring 
out one of the professors to fill grandfather's pulpit, 
when his other duties prevented him from writing 
his sermon. Thus, my early standards, through 



62 REMINISCENCES. 

my grandfather's kindness in always permitting 
me to enjoy such associations, in the way of my 
education, were the best possible for those times. 
/ I remember very well when grandfather brought 
the first copy of Webster's Unabridged, two large 
quarto volumes, home from New Haven. Hap- 
pening to be there when they arrived, they were 
a great treat, and were considered a perfect treas- 
ure-house, the more so as my grandfather spared 
no means of incitement to enhance my interest in 
the study of these volumes. [l read scores of 
pages consecutively, time after time, as I had op- 
portunity, of these volumes, studying as I was 
able, the etymology of the words, the various sig- 
nifications being especially interesting in the ex- 
amples given of the authorities for the special 
meanings and uses of words. In fact, my grand- 
father humorously called me the little bookworm, 
and in the same spirit of humor, pretending to be 
at a loss now and then for the pronunciation of a 
word, or for its signification, or for the best word to 
use for the expression of an idea, would come to me 
very gently and meekly to get my opinion about 
it. Of course, I did the best I could, and was al- 
ways encouraged by his kindness and appreciation 
of my childish efforts to grapple the mighty prob- 
lems in precision and taste, which he delighted to 
throw upon me. 

The usages of his family were a part of my train- 
ing. In family prayers, which grandfather always 
conducted himself, after the .reading of a chapter, 



MY TEACHERS. 63 

verse by verse, all around the whole circle of chil. 
dren, grandchildren, employes and visitors, the 
whole family stood, in my earliest recollections, 
while prayer was being offered, each leaning upon 
his chair. Before every meal, too, the blessing was 
asked, the family all standing, each behind his 
chair. After the meal, the family rising and tak- 
ing the same position as before, thanks were re- 
turned, and seldom did any one leave the table 
before the "returning of thanks." At the table, 
the food being placed upon central dishes, each 
helped himself, save perhaps the youngest chil- 
dren and grandchildren, who were served by the 
grandmother, or one of the aunts. It was not 
considered good form to eat butter while meat was 
on the plate. The general butter-plates were so 
arranged that each cut off as much butter with his 
own knife as he would spread for the time being 
upon his piece of bread. The cutting off of a 
larger mass of butter, and placing it upon the side 
of the plate, rather than that each should help him- 
self continuously from the common plate, was an 
innovation. No butter-knives were used in those 
days, and individual butter-plates were unknown. 
No napkins were seen in the hands or laps of any, 
but each one used his own handkerchief when nec- 
essary, at the table. No butter was used on cake, 
and no sugar or sirup on pie. Nothing that any 
animal could eat must be thrown in the fire. It 
was wasteful and wicked. Cider was more gen- 
-erally drank at the table for dinner, coffee for 



64 REMINISCENCES. 

breakfast, and tea for supper. Not infrequently, 
however, our coffee was grown in the rye-field, and 
being properly browned, made us a very palatable 
drink, certainly not very stimulating. 
/ The best people of New Haven, Andover, Bos- 
ton and New York were entertained at my grand- 
father's hospitable board. There seemed to be 
no end to his acquaintance with Congregational 
ministers, in those days called Presbyterians. For 
the most part, these gentlemen were to the chil- 
dren and grandchildren especially, w^come, and 
being all college graduates, much of the time of 
the visits was occupied in the narration of college 
experiences. And thus, in early days, did I get 
the feeling that college life was not one of special 
earnestness, or of high-toned moral power. For 
most, even in those days, that I heard of college 
life from these ministers and professors, was the 
narration of college tricks upon teachers, fellow- 
pupils, or citizens. ■ With special gusto would 
most of these reverend fathers speak of the man- 
ner in which they " came it " over the professors 
in passing muster at recitations and examinations, 
and get their grades (honorably or passably) with- 
out deserving them. 

I remember very well the square case contain- 
ing twelve bottles filled with the best of liquors, 
and the manner in which the bottles were applied 
to for the filling of the decanters which were used 
on various occasions, with liberality proportioned 
to the dignity, position or fame of the visitor. 



MY TEACHERS. 65 

My grandfather himself, though not a total ab- 
stinence man, rarely, according to my remem- 
brance, partook of any stimulant, nor did he 
furnish it to any of his work-hands, excepting in 
haying, in harvest, or when the help of neighbors 
was required ; as, for instance, at the raising of 
a barn, the digging of a well, or some extra work 
of this kind. All these usages, in my childish es- 
timation, were the right thing to do, and were 
doubtless according to the best usages of the best 
society, although they have been very much modi- 
fied since in most intelligent families. Thus, my 
grandfather, with the usages of his family, and his 
wide acquaintance, was one of my earliest and 
most venerated teachers. 

My Grandfather Holbrook, whom I never saw,, 
as he died a, short time previous to my birth, was; 
also indirectly one of my early teachers, especially 
as he was quoted constantly by my aunts and others 
as a man of unswerving principle, of great public 
spirit, of determined purpose and of a pure life. 
Many of his peculiarities were related in my hear- 
ing. These ever excited a high degree of venera- 
tion, and, no doubt, had a very positive influence 
in determining me to lead a pure, useful and pro- ' 
gressive life. His service in the Revolutionary 
War was narrated — his raising a company among" 
his fellow-citizens; his being appointed colonel of 
a regiment and his meeting the British forces at 
East Haven, where a large band of marauders 
had landed, burned and destroyed all within their 
5 



66 REMINISCENCES. 

reach; his success in driving them back to their 
ships, and his ever rejecting the mihtary title and 
preferring that of "Deacon," thus recognizing his 
office in the church as more worthy of regard 
than his position in the army. From the report 
of his children and others I learned that he was 
the leading spirit in every good enterprise of the 
times. As agriculture was his principal business, 
he was engaged in one improvement after another, 
introducing the best seeds, having the most profit- 
able crops and the most valuable stock upon his 
own farm, and thus inciting his neighbors to like 
iinprovement. When plaster of Paris was first in- 
troduced as a valuable manure, in order to influ- 
ence his neighbors and fellow-citizens to use this 
fertilizer, he sowed a quantity upon one of his 
meadows, which was visible at a considerable dis- 
tance in all directions from the hills. On another 
meadow, similarly situated, he sowed a quantity 
in the form of the letters D-a-n-i-e-1 H-o-l-b-r-o-o-k. 
By the superior verdure and growth his name 
could be read on that meadow for miles in nearly 
all directions. His farm, whether named by him- 
self or others, was called "Happy Valley." It 
not only embraced the valley, but hundreds of 
acres around over the hills in three directions. 
My father was a determined anti-Mason. In- 
quiring of him one day why he was so opposed to 
the Masonic fraternity, he told me that his first 
opposition arose from the reports of my grand- 
father Holbrook, who had been a leading Mason 



MY TEACHERS. 6/ 

of the Derby Lodge. He had quietly abandoned 
the lodge and all connection with it many years 
before his death, giving as his reason that the 
lodge urged many of its claims in opposition to 
those of the Church of Christ, and that he felt 
that the established order and privileges of the 
Christian religion were immeasurably more ef- 
fective for the progress of society and for the 
safety of -the individual than anything that Ma- 
sonry could or would furnish. For these reasons 
he abandoned the lodge and clung to the church. 
Another reason he offered was, that the great 
majority of the members of the lodge, in their fre- 
quent meetings, no women being present, were 
induced, out of a feeling of good fellowship, to 
use more wine and brandy than was prudent or 
right. 

My grandfather was one of the first who in- 
vested in lands in New Connecticut, now called 
Western Reserve. He was engaged in this line 
of purchase with other leading citizens, among 
whom was Deacon Tomlinson, of Great Hill, 
General Cleveland was their agent. He located 
himself at the port now called Cleveland after 
him, and had the general control of all those 
lands then purchased by the citizens of Derby. 
Several different townships were purchased. One 
in Loraine County was named Holbrook after my 
grandfather; another was named Kirtland after a 
gentleman who took the place of General Cleve- 
land. It was in this township that my Uncle 



68 REMINISCENCES. 

David and three of my aunts, with their husbands 
and famihes, afterward settled on lands coming- 
from my grandfather's estate. It was related by 
my aunts that if either Deacon Tomlinson or 
Deacon Holbrook received a letter on Saturday 
containing information in which the other was in- 
terested, when they met on Sabbath at the public 
services, neither communicated to the other even, 
the fact that he had received such a letter, but de- 
ferred the matter entirely until the next day, 
when the one who received the letter rode a dis- 
tance of six or eight miles to confer with the 
other upon the subject-matter of the letter. 

One of my grandfather's farms was located in 
Choosetown, afterward called Humphreysville, now 
Seymour. This farm was tilled by a negro slave, 
by the name of Richard. Of course this was be- 
fore any laws looking toward manumission were 
enacted. Richard was a very pious and reliable 
negro. How much my grandfather paid for him, 
or whether he was born in the family from slaves 
previously purchased, I am not able to say; but 
he was very much respected and considered en- 
tirely reliable and worthy of all confidence by 
grandfather and his family. It was grandfather's 
custom as often, perhaps, as once a week, to visit 
this farm and give Richard such directions as were 
necessary, and to furnish such other help as was 
needed to carry on the work of the farm profita- 
bly. One Monday morning, grandfather, arriving 
at the Choosetown farm, looked around over the 



MY TEACHERS. 69 

various fields, saw that they were in good condi- 
tion, the fences all in order, the cattle and the horse 
in their proper pasture lot, and crops all flourish- 
ing, but no Richard was to be seen anywhere on 
the property. Riding up to the cabin prepared 
for Richard's comfort, he heard, inside, Richard's 
voice, apparently engaged in devotion. Alight- 
ing from his horse, he opened the door and found 
Richard reading his Bible. He looked up with 
some amazement, waiting for the master to ad- 
dress him. "Well, Richard, how are things get- 
ting along here?" "All right, massa, all right; 
t'ank de Lord!" "Are you well, Richard?" 
''Yes, massa, all right, all right; bress de Lord!'' 
"Well, how are your oxen, are they doing well?" 
"All right, massa; t'ank de Lord!" "Have you 
been out at work this morning?" "No sah, no 
sah; can't work Sabba' day." "Why, Richard, 
it is not Sabbath; it is Monday." "Monday, 
massa! Monday! why I worked all day Sabba' 
day! Can't work to-day, massa; can't cheat de 
Lord out ob one day. Please, massa, worked all 
day yes'aday; can't cheat de Lord, massa." 
"Well, "Richard, you need not work to-day. Serve 
the Lord as much as you feel you ought. I will 
come up again to-morrow and see you." This 
circumstance may, perhaps, show the relation 
which existed in New England between the slaves 
and their masters in the time of New England 
slavery. 



70 REMINISCENCES. 

MY FATHER AS MY TEACHER. 

I have related elsewhere father's interest in my 
mechanical training with Mr. Colburn, and his 
furnishing me with a set of drawing instruments, 
and his requiring me to copy certain engravings 
of machinery. And I may continue here by ex- 
plaining how he excited an interest in drawing by 
his presenting various problems in geometry, in- 
volving accurate drawings of the figures, also in 
conic sections, also in freehand-drawing, in ar- 
ranging a set of drawings, illustrating every form 
of leaf, of flower and of fruit. Now, these my 
early attempts at drawing were, by my father's 
management, rather as appealing to my feeling of 
good-will, pride and ambition than as require- 
ments ; in truth, my father never required anything 
of me ; I do not remember that he ever gave me a 
word of censure or rebuke. 

When my brother and I were called to Boston, 
and came under his immediate continuous control, 
• he spared no means or opportunity to interest us 
in practical science in all its workings. Our work 
in the apparatus manufactory seems to me now 
to have been directed more to our instruction than 
to the. profit derived from our labor, and yet I 
was very proud when I heard father tell a visitor 
that Alfred was worth as much to him in the shop 
as any hand he employed, although I was then 
only fourteen years of age. Not infrequently did 
he engage in excursions with the children of this 



MY TEACHERS. /I 

or that public school, for the collection of speci- 
mens of various rocks found in the suburbs of 
Boston, either as bowlders, or in situ. Thus, I 
became at a very early period familiar with the 
geology of the neighborhood, from close and con- 
tinued observation under my father's direction. 
By exchanges, we obtained large quantities of val- 
uable specimens of ores, crystals, geodes and other 
beautiful and valuable minerals, from all parts of 
the world. A general national exchange of min- 
erals and other valuable articles was an original 
and favorite idea of my father. His correspond- 
ence for this purpose was immense. A part of 
this correspondence was in the form of circulars, 
which I folded and directed, and of course read 
and studied. It was by these means that I early 
acquired a ready power of discrimination of nearly 
all possible minerals at sight, aiding myself now 
and then by blowpipe analysis. Father, during 
my stay in Boston, occupied the Columbian Hall, 
opening upon School and Tremont Streets. Here 
his large collection of boxes was stored, and their 
contents examined and selected for his own cabinet, 
and other specimens, broken and labeled, were pre- 
pared for sending to all parts of the world. In 
another place, I have related how father accom- 
plished the first geological survey made in the 
United States. 

Besides the excursions with children, before 
spoken of, father made excursions with my brother 
and myself to more remote point's, for instance to 



72 REMINISCENCES. 

Nahant, Dorchester Heights, to Charleston, gov- 
ernment shipyards, Cambridge University, and 
various other places of interest, all of which were 
designed to enlarge our field of general informa- 
tion, and extend our course of reading, and train 
our powers of observation — designed, as I now 
see, to train and discipline our faculties in every 
conceivable direction. 

On Sabbath, we were accustomed to read religi- 
ous books, for instance, Dvvight's Theology, (father 
was a great admirer of Dr. Timothy Dwight) and 
we were taken to listen to the most celebrated 
divines of Boston, among whom were Dr. Chan- 
ning, John Pierrepont, and Dr. Lyman Beecher. 
In all of these walks, excursions, readings and 
listenings, we were incited to prepare ourselves to 
report at a favorable opportunity, on our views, 
and as to what our opinions were, after witnessing 
all these different exhibitions of natural scenery, 
human ingenuity and ability. Thus, without 
realizing father's design, we were trained to be- 
come intelligently familiar with the leading men 
of the times, whether in the pulpit or on the 
rostrum. I was once taken by my father through 
the Quincy Market, then the most beautiful mar- 
ket-house in the world. Being early in the season, 
we came to a fruit-stand, on which were displayed 
a number of pears. Father handed my brother a 
pear, gave me one, and took one himself, which 
he immediately bit, asking the fruit-vender the 
price. " Fifty cents apiece, sir," said the man. 



MY TEACHERS. 7$ 

"Well," said father, " I guess one of these will 
answer, and I will get some other kind of fruit for 
the boys." So father paid for the pear, and went 
to another stand, inquiring the price before pur- 
chasing. He then took occasion to tell us many 
anecdotes about " Billy Gray," one of which was 
on an occasion after he had amassed a fortune. 
Being in market one day getting his supplies, a 
young fellow came along and got his supplies, 
filled his basket, and inquired of the market-man 
if he knew of any boy that would take the basket 
home for him. Billy Gray standing near, and not 
being known to the young man, offered to take 
the basket for him, telling him he should charge 
him a dime. This was readijy agreed to. Billy 
Gray started off with the baskets, finding it was 
on his way to his own palatial residence. The 
young man being anxious to know who the old 
man was who was carrying the two baskets, was 
told by the market-man that it was Billy Gray, 
one of the wealthiest men of Boston, Now, it 
so happened that the father of this young man 
was in Billy Gray's employ, the young man him- 
self having been absent at college. Feeling char- 
grined at the result of his silliness in being ashamed 
to be seen carrying a market-basket through the 
streets of Boston, he speedily overtook Billy Gray, 
and asked that his basket should be returned, but 
Mr. Gray refused to give it up, inquiring who the 
young man was as if he did not know already, and 
then informed him that he had been accustomed 



74 REMINISCENCES. 

in his early life to do just that kind of thing for 
his regular business, but he had not got too old 
nor too rich to carry a basket for himself or his 
neighbors if he got his pay for it. 

My father was a very interesting conversation- 
alist, and wherever he was, in my partial view, he 
was the leading thinker and talker. His office on 
the Corner of School and Washington Streets, 
was the frequent. resort of the best men of Boston, 
if I may except the politicians. Such men as 
Channing and Pierrepont, S. V. S. Wilder, the 
Mayor of the city; H. V. R. Smith, General But- 
ler, Sr. , and all the leading educators and writers 
of Boston, I became acquainted with in their 
visits and conversations, which were chiefly upon 
educational topics, not infrequently taking a much 
wider range. Our week-day reading consisted 
mostly of such volumes as Goldsmith's "Animated 
Nature," Bigelow's "Technology," and other im- 
portant works on practical science. ( The Boston 
Museum was a favorite place of resort, my father 
holding a free family ticket. He kindly went with 
us, directing our attention chiefly to the natural 
curiosities that had been collected from Europe, 
Asia and Africa in the lines of zoology, mineral- 
ogy and geology. ?One of these I remember to 
have seen with him — whether foreign or domestic, 
I am unable to say— was a flea chained up by one 
leg to a pin driven into the top of a table. This 
was an active specimen. Father raised the in- 
quiry, " If a flea can jump eighteen inches at one 



MY TEACHERS. 75 

Spring, how far ought an elephant to jump, in pro- 
portion to his weight and size, at one leap? " 

The first rattlesnake I ever saw was kept in a 
box, and was visible through a wire grating. We 
were permitted to run a stick through the grating 
to stir up the rattlesnake, and rouse him, if pos- 
sible, to some kind of attention ; but we found it 
very stupid, and apparently so little disturbed by 
our attacks, that we soon let him alone, and went 
elsewhere to find some more interesting amuse- 
ment. One day after we had been stirring up 
his snakeship, we read in the Evening Tvanscript, 
which had then only just begun its career, that the 
keeper, on the same day, after we left, had been 
bitten by this same rattlesnake. Now, the keeper 
had been very kind and attentive to us two boys, 
and we felt an interest in his well-being. He told 
us afterward, on inquiring of him, that, as he was 
cleaning out the sand and other materials from the 
snake's box, with a rod, there remained a straw 
which he could not easily remove with his 
rod. The snake being in the remote part of the 
box, he put his thumb and finger under the grat- 
ing to take hold of the straw, but no sooner was 
his thumb within reach of the snake, than he 
he struck instantly his fangs into the flesh. With 
some little difficulty the keeper withdrew his 
. thumb. He passed to the table on which lay a 
hatchet, and as quickly as possible, cut his thumb 
off near the inner joint. The physician was at 
once called ; such applications as were thought to 



7^ REMINISCENCES. 

be effectual, were made. His hand and arm im- 
mediately swelled to an enormous size, became 
the color of the rattlesnake's skin, and all hope was 
abandoned of saving the man's life. He was, how- 
ever, saved, barely escaped, and, as in every such 
case, the annual return of that day brought with 
it the same symptoms, but each successive year 
with diminished virulence. 

Speaking of the Transcript, it was customary 
with us at our boarding-place, Mr. Pelton's, in the 
old Province House Court, to read the evening 
paper, or to have it read, every evening after sup- 
per. One of the yoving lady boarders, taking up 
the Transcript one evening, commenced reading 
for the benefit of the company. As she pro- 
ceeded, she read something like this: "At the 
dedication of the Masonic Temple yesterday, one 
of our solid men was noticed as a prominent fig- 
ure standing against one of the columns in the 
midst of the vast assemblage. His splendid phys- 
ique and lordly bearing, no doubt attracted the 
general attention of the audience. While ap- 
parently giving his attention to the proceedings 
of the dedication, it w^as noticed that he was 
seized with a sudden tremor; his rubicund coun- 
tenance was blanched — his Avhole figure trembled 
with alarm. He continued feeling in every pocket 
about his person ; it was evident some loss 
had befallen him. While this was going on, a 
laboring man was seen advancing toward him 
through the crowd. As he reached him, he 



MY TEACHERS. 77 

handed a pocketbook rounded out with the con- 
tents, as it was supposed, of large bills of money. 
It was taken with eagerness, and the poor but hon- 
est man was rewarded with twenty-five dollars, no 
cents. " As the young lady read on, no doubt most 
of her audience were inquiring within themselves 
what that "twenty-five dollars, no cents" meant. 
My father, as soon as the young lady had left the 
room, requested me to take up the paper and 
read that incident reported to have occurred at 
the dedication of the Masonic Temple, As I 
found it punctuated it read thus: "The poor but 
honest man was rewarded with twenty five — dol- 
lars? No!! — cents!"' 

Father was accustomed to relate his experiences 
during the visitations he made to the public 
schools. He made frequent use of a system of 
object lessons of his own invention and arrange- 
ment, interesting the children in such a way as 
to send them out into the fields and quarries in the 
neighborhood of Boston. 

One of his object-lessons, as he reported, ran 
thus: "What is this I have in my hand, boys?" 
^ -'Coffee, sir." "What use does your mother 
make of it?" "Makes '/«/,' sir." Again, in an 
infant school, the teacher was engaged in teaching 
spelling; father asked to be permitted to hold the 
attention of the class for a moment. ' ' Certainly, ' ' 
said the teacher. "Well, my boy, s-t-a-i-r-s, what 
does that spell?" "Don't know." '' Don't knozvT' 
why what do you go up on when you go to bed?'* 



78 KEMINISCENXES. 

One little boy, brighter than the rest, sang out, 
"A ladder, sir!" "Very well, s-t-a-i-r-s don't 
spell ladder. I want to know if the rest can tell 
what it spells." Nobody could tell. Well, 
now, what is it that you go up to your cham- 
ber on?" "Don't go up to no chamber; we 
sleep down cellar." "Well, what do you go 
down cellar on ? " " Go down on the steps, sir." 
Father, at last, had to tell the children ; he could 
not draw it out of them by any of his devices. 
From these lines of procedure, in every variety 
it may well be inferred that my early training was 
valuable as a preparation for the work Providence 
designed for me. In all his educational labors, 
whether written or spoken, father was at least 
fifty years ahead of his times. Even now, I ap- 
prehend that, in the majority of the most wealthy 
and aristocratic institutions, his educational meas- 
ures and plans would be considered quite vision- 
ary and fanatical; as iconoclastic and impracticable. 
In fact, after meeting with the National Association 
of Educators in New York City, in May, 1837, I re- 
member hearing him say, with disgust, that he 
could find no sympathy or place of common 
standing with the leading educators in that associ- 
ation, of which he was one of the original found- 
ers. All measures that they proposed — that they 
discussed — he considered as, in a large measure, 
useless, tending to stupefy the mind rather than 
excite the ambition of the student, and any and 
everything he proposed was considered by the 



MY TEACHERS. 79 

worthy gentlemen who constituted that associa- 
tion as utterly invalid and futile and visionary. 

The world moves, nevertheless, even though 
the only places through which the turbid stream 
of the dark ages still flows are the most highly en- 
dowed and the most aristocratic of the colleges. 
It may be charged, as it has often been, that I 
am hostile to colleges and to college men. Not in 
the least. /As was my father before, I am bitterly 
opposed to the evil practices, the antiquated 
usages, the repressive influences of colleges, as 
many of them are yet conducted. I have never 
attacked a college or officer of any college ; I have 
done whatever seemed to me to be desirable and 
proper on all occasions, by writing, by speaking 
and by my own course in building an institution 
that should utilize all that is good in colleges and 
reject all that is acknowledged to be bad./ 

While I fight the iniquities of a system with no 
hostile feeling toward any man, I have often been 
made the target of most bitter personal attack 
and denunciation. I sent word to one worthy 
college president, who used a considerable part of 
his time in Teachers' Institutes in denouncing me 
as a charlatan and a humbug, that I could afford 
to pay him a moderate salary for these efforts to 
crush and ruin me. Why ? In every Teachers' 
Institute in Ohio, and several other States, the 
most active workers, in attendance are my pupils. 
They take up these statements made by such 
men, and either in private or before the Institute, 



80 REMINISCENCES. 

show their falsity, and thus expose the bigotry 
and bitterness of those who make them. The re- 
sult is always favorable to this institution, and the 
reverend speaker is thus the means of removing 
prejudices and sending me pupils who otherwise 
would never have come. 

1 It will be seen by this time that I have come 
honestly by my opinions and practices ; my doings 
and daring in grappling with the grand fetich 
of this age. I am proud of my father's memory, 
as an iconoclast, a humanitarian, a Christian, and 
more especially, thankful that I had the continued 
teaching and example of such a man. 

On another page I have given my father's 
management of his boy, in part. I shall now 
try to describe the training he gave me under 
Mr. Keys, a mechanic he had found in one of his 
lecturing tours at West Boylston, Mass., in 1829 
or 1830. Mr. Keys was a foreman in Flagg's 
machine shop at that place, and, like many of the 
Yankee employes, was well read, intelligent and 
ingenious. He was much interested in father's 
lectures on chemistry, astronomy and natural 
philosophy, and always remained after the lecture 
to inquire further, and to ask for the titles of the 
best books treating on these subjects. 

Father became much interested in him, es- 
pecially as Mr. Flagg, his employer, explained an 
important attachment that Keys had invented for 
power looms. It was this: before this Keys' im- 
provement was applied, a girl was required to watch 



MY TEACHERS. ol 

, each loom in order to stop the loom and tie a thread 
whenever one was broken. As one neglect to do 
this would impair the value of the entire piece, 
the mill-owner was obliged to put a heavy money 
penalty upon the loom-girl who failed to take up 
and connect the ends of a broken thread. The 
strain on the girls was severe, and not infrequently 
brought on brain fever, or some other serious 
malady. Mr. Keys' kindness of heart and ingenu- 
ity were aroused to mitigate these evils — loss on 
the mill-owner and penalty on the girls. 

His contrivance was very simple. He placed 
a cylinder, rotating by its connections directly 
under the cloth where the filling was being thrown 
by the shuttle. The cylinder was as long as the 
cloth was wide. Narrow creases were made about 
a third of an inch apart, and extending the whole 
length of the cylinder. • A stiff steel wire, having 
a loop at the top, was so hung on each thread of 
the warp that when a thread broke the wire would 
drop upon the revolving cylinder and into one of 
the creases. This threw the loom out of gear and 
stopped it, thus automatically apprising the girl 
in charge of the fact of a broken thread, and stop- 
ping the loom till she could take up the thread 
and make all right again. 

A girl could more safely attend to three looms 
with Keys' attachment than to one without it, 
and with no special tax upon her attention. Mr. 
Keys took out no patent for this most valuable 
improvement, though his employer advised him 
6 



82 REMINISCENCES. 

to do SO. Mr. Flagg was a manufacturer of power, 
looms. Whether the improvement is still in use, 
or has ever been superseded, I am unable to say. 

When it was explained to me by my father, 
with devices of other men in machinery to save 
time and labor and mental strain, it not only ex- 
cited my interest in labor-saving machinery and 
mechanism generally, which was never abated, 
but a special respect for Mr. Keys, my teacher 
in practical mechanics. 

In starting an apparatus manufactory in Boston, 
my father selected Mr. Keys as the man to take 
charge of it. A number of other mechanics were 
employed ; for there was no trade nor art, 
scarcely, that was not brought into requisition in 
the construction of scientific apparatus as devised 
by my father. Mr. Keys was the genius of the 
manufactory; my father- found his suggestions 
valuable in devising and constructing orreries, tel- 
lurians, globes, electric machines and electric bat- 
teries, air-pumps and their attendant receivers, 
stopcocks and whatnots. All of these articles, such 
as were being used in Harvard, Yale and other col- 
leges, had been previously imported from Europe. 
For example : Father took me over to Harvard 
one day, and showed me an orrery which, he 
said, was seldom or never used, that cost in Paris 
$5,000. Said he: "Alfred, I shall make an orrery 
that will be used, and will answer every purpose 
that this does, for $10." 

And this was about a fair example of the revo- 



MY TEACHERS, 83 

lution father's apparatus wrought for the advan- 
tage of colleges, but more for public and private 
schools. All colleges are now supplied with the 
Holbrook apparatus, though the manufacturers in 
Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Chicago do 
not to any extent recognize the name. 

Mr. Keys, I thought, took a great interest in 
training me in all mechanical contrivances, in the 
use of all kinds of tools and machines. The man- 
ufacture of apparatus involved the most accurate 
and finished kinds of work in wood, in metal, in 
paper and cloth, in paints, varnishes, lacquers, and 
every other conceivable material and appliance. 
We had a forge and anvil in our shop, several dif- 
ferent kinds of lathes, a full set of cabinet-maker's 
tools, an outfit for a tinner, and a clock-maker; 
besides, much of the work was carried out of 
the building to every variety of mechanic and 
artisan. Engravers, water-color painters, marblers 
and molders were brought into requisition ; in 
fact, there was scarcely any kind or variety of 
mechanical or art work which I did not become 
more or less familiar with, and, to a considerable 
extent, an expert operative in it, partly because I 
enjoyed the work, but more because father in- 
tended that I should continue in it for my life 
business. Doubtless Mr. Keys and father held 
many a conversation as to what was best for me 
to engage in next and next, and so on. One 
thing more I learned from my father's connection 
with Mr. Keys. 



84 REMINISCENCES. 

After he left Boston, and had supplied us with 
large quantities of apparatus, which he made 
in West Boylston, in a shop which he had fitted 
up there, he died from typhoid fever. 

His administrator brought in his book account 
against father of several thousand dollars. 

Relying upon Mr. Keys' fidelity and accuracy, 
father had kept no regular accounts that could be 
authenticated in court. The receipts for money 
paid had always been sent him, but they were 
thrown carelessly, with other loose papers, into a 
drawer, and some had been destroyed. Several 
payments father remembered, which were not on 
Keys' books, and for which the receipts could not 
be found. The administrator insisted on the re- 
payment of all charges for which no vouchers 
could be found, though several receipts were 
shown for payments not credited on Keys' books. 
This lesson has been of much value to me in in- 
sisting that my regular employes keep their own 
accounts, and whether they do or not, that I have 
vouchers for all payments made them. 



CHAPTER V. 



STAMFORD. 

While living in Stamford, Connecticut, 1832-3, 
I was occasionally amused by the performances of 
a queer fellow, who, it was said, had been disap- 
pointed in love. He was a great tobacco-chewer, 
and perhaps that had something to do with the 
addled condition of his brain. He was never seen 
to walk through the streets, but when he came to 
the town his passage was made by running a few 
rods at a time and stopping to take breath. He 
was often the butt of ridicule for the boys, and 
sometimes, from his marked devotional feeling in 
church, excited the attention and roused the spirit 
of merriment of those who were not seriously 
engaged in the worship of the sanctuary. He 
generally sat in the gallery of the church. It 
happened one Sabbath, I sat in the same vicinity, 
and was disturbed by the giggling and whispering 
of two boys in the front seats, just below us. The 
personage previously mentioned doubtless felt 
that his devotions were interfered with by these 
boys. My attention was turned from the boys to 
the manifest anger of this devout worshiper, as he 
(85) 



86 REMINISCEN'CES. 

endeavored several times to turn away his eyes 
from the boys to the preacher during the long 
prayer. He at length seemed to yield to the dis- 
turbance, in so far as to give his undivided attention 
to the boys, quite abandoning his devotions. Had 
I been more strictly devout myself, perhaps I 
should not have witnessed his performance. As 
it was, however, I was watching the indignation 
gathering in his eyes. His cheeks. swelled with 
wrath and tobacco. When he could hold neither 
any longer, a flood ,of indignation and tobacco- 
juice burst forth into the faces of the disturbers of 
the peace. This irregular proceeding attracted 
the attention of all within the range of vision, and 
a smile of approval went in waves over their 
countenances. In relating this to the minister, a 
few days afterward, he said in reply: "The boys 
got just what they deserved, and I hope for once 
they were calmed into a reverent quiet and a 
proper respect for the feeling of others while 
engaged in Sabbath exercises. My eyes being 
closed, I was only conscious of some unusual 
state of feeling in my audience;" "but," said 
he, "a few Sabbaths ago, while a brother-minis- 
ter was offering the long prayer, my attention was 
distracted, I confess, by the contortions of the 
countenance of this same young man, and for 
once I could not quite suppress a smile, even in 
the sacred desk, and during prayer. It so hap- 
pened that a young man, with remarkably red 
hair, sat in the same place where these boys sat. 



STAMFORD. 8/ 

The peculiar fiery aspect of the head a little in 
front and beneath, attracted the attention of our 
friend. I noticed that he was exceedingly interested 
in the appearance, and after various contortions and 
evolutions and other manifestations of intense in- 
terest, I observed that he placed the index-finger of 
his left hand on top of the red head, (the possessor 
hardly aware of the use being made of his flaming 
locks) and turning it over as if it were a piece of 
iron in the forge, occasionally taking it away, and 
placing it on the back of the seat, hammered at it 
with his other fist. After he had reduced it toward 
the proper shape, and it became too much chilled, 
it was replaced for another heating in the glowing 
source of heat, and then subjected to further ma- 
nipulation. I believe this is the only time that I 
ever lost possession of myself, and laughed in 
church." 

With regard to this love-stricken youth, it was 
narrated in Stamford chat his mother, being 
anxious to bring him out, made arrangements 
with her brother, a New York merchant, to have 
John visit the city, and spend a few weeks in 
wearing off his rusticity. Before the son took his 
departure, it is said, the mother carefully enjoined 
upon him, "John, you know you are not as smart 
as some people, especially, as some of your 
cousins in the city; you must do the best you can, 
and unless you can answer correctly and at once, 
it will be best for you not to make any answer at 
all. Now, remember, John, remember what I 



88 REMINISCENCES. 

tell you; if you can't answer correctly and at once, 
make no reply whatever. " So John found him- 
self in the city, a guest in his uncle's family, and 
no doubt he was treated very hospitably. But, 
on the first Sabbath, when the family was as- 
sembled at dinner, and some of the clerks with 
them, one of them said to John, " Be so kind as to 
pass the biscuits. " John passed the biscuits, but 
made no reply. The manner in which it was done 
rather interested the clerk, and he addressed 
several questions to the country boy, to which, 
John, following the injunctions of his good mother, 
made no reply. At length the clerk, turning to 
the one who sat by him, on the other side, whis- 
pered, loud enough for John to hear, "What is the 
matter with this fellow; he is a fool, isn't he?" 
John, hearing the allegation, started up and ran 
away from the table, saying, "There, mother, they 
have found it out, and I haven't said a word ; but 
they have found it out." With this, he left the 
room, and all at the table in a roar. 

Living in Stamford, was a remarkably handsome 

lawyer by the name of T . Having married an 

heiress, he was sent by her to Yale College, 
to prepare for his chosen profession, the law. 
But having, probably, too much money at his con- 
trol, and not having his wife there to hold him in 
check, he was engaged with other students in mis- 
chief, time and again, at the expense of the Pro- 
fessor of mathematics, who, from his earnestness 
to help the boys to do something for themselves, 



STAMFORD. 89 

became very unpopular. Young T., on an oc- 
casion, had been interrupted in a clandestine per- 
formance in the recitation-room of this Professor. 
He had drawn a striking caricature upon the black- 
board, and had just commenced writing the in- 
scription underneath. He had proceeded so far 
as to write "A demon," but being interrupted by 
the sound of the professor's key placed in the lock, 
he made a precipitate escape through a window of 
the room. He was called up before the dons, in a 
Faculty meeting, to give an account of himself for 
thus denominating a worthy Christian gentleman. 
His defense was, that if he had been left alone a 
little longer, he would have given them the in- 
scription he had designed, which was simply "A 
demonstratioji " that he was making upon the 
board and writing the proper inscription, but 
being interrupted at an unfortunate point, he had 
inadvertently given a more appropriate title to the 
gentleman than he had intended. He was ex- 
pelled, not unwillingly probably to his wife and his 
ease. All he ever did in the practice of law, so 
far as I know, never led to any additions to his 
wife's possessions. I heard him say, however, 
that when "the boys " were engaged in card-play- 
ing in his rooms, one night, momentarily expect- 
ing a call from one of the professors on his round, 
they had prepared in their room a kettleful of 
mush, and had deposited a part of it in the pockets 
of an overcoat hanging by the door. When the 
expected knock was heard, the usual cry "Come 



go REMINISCENCES. 

in" was given, but the boys having everything 
arranged, were in a great flutter, and one of them. 
had apparently deposited some of the contraband 
articles in the overcoat in such a manner as was 
intended to lead the Professor in that direction. 
The Professor thrust his hand into one of the 
pockets of the overcoat, but withdrew it much 
more rapidly than he had thrust it in, his hand 
being badly scalded by the mush prepared for that 
purpose, but when the boys were summoned be- 
fore the Faculty to give an account of themselves, 
and being questioned by the President of the In- 
stitution, and no one being willing to reply or to 
implicate himself in this transaction, T. himself, 
according to his account, arose and remarked : " I 
am able to inform you gentlemen, although I 
know very little about the affair, who had a /land 
in it — It was the Professor himself." 



CHAPTER VI. 



MY FIRST SCHOOL. 

In the fall of 1833, being then seventeen years 
old, and having come from West Boylston, Mass., 
and having recovered my health, I had not as yet 
engaged in any business. I was living at my 
grandfather's. One day, being occupied in a 
cornfield, gathering corn, I noticed a stranger 
coming toward me. He said: "Your name is 
Alfred Holbrook." "Yes, sir." "I understand 
you are a pretty good scholar, and I am in pur- 
suit of a teacher for our village school." "I never 
taught any, and, of course, do not know whether 
I can teach or not. Where are you from, sir?" 
"From Monroe; I was directed to you as one 
who would like to get a situation." "I have no 
business in view, sir, and have never taught. I 
don't know whether I will make a good teacher 
or not. What wages do you pay?" "We expect 
to pay ^12 per month." "You furnish board?" 
"Oh, yes; our teacher always boards round with 
us." "Well, sir, I have not been examined, and 
not having taught any, don't know whether I 
shall succeed. How long do you wish your 

(91) 



92 



REMINISCENCES. 



school to continue?" "Six months, if everything 
works well; that is, if you give satisfaction." 
"Well, sir, if I pass examination and you will 
give ;^I4 a month, provided I am not discharged 
before the time expires, and ^12 a month for the 
time I really teach if I am discharged, I am will- 
ing to make the attempt," My condition of ^14, 
provided I was not discharged, seemed to strike 
the gentleman rather pleasantly, as I noticed he 
smiled. He saw, of course, that he could dis- 
charge me half an hour before the time expired 
and pay me $\2 3. month if he chose. My object 
in offering this condition was, that I might put 
myself under the strongest possible inducement 
to work hard and give the best possible satisfac- 
tion. I had learned that I was subject to tempta- 
tion, like other boys of that age, and thought it 
desirable to place myself under such conditions as 
would hold me to my business; such" conditions as 
would appeal both to my pride and to my pocket 
also. My examination by the town authority 
was, to me, somewhat interesting. After being 
asked to spell one or two words, one of which 
was calico, and not being sure, I suggested it was 
spelled differently in different dictionaries. In my 
examination in geography, I was asked: "Who is 
the present king of Spain?" My answer was: 
"The present king of Spain is a woman, sir, if I 
remember rightly." He smiled and rejoined: 
"That is a good one. You know more about it 
than I do." This closed my examination. 



MY FIRST SCHOOL. 93 

At the appointed time I found myself at the 
house of Mr. Robinson, the gentleman with whom 
I had made the contract, having himself four chil- 
dren for the school. He said he would, if it were 
agreeable to me, prefer to have me board out the 
time with him, before I passed to other families 
in the district. He remarked that it would be 
proper for me calculate how long it would be 
necessary to board for each child attending 
school. When the calculation was made, I found 
that I would continue with this very worthy family 
for three weeks, and I found a very pleasant in- 
troduction to the society of Monroe through them 
and their special friends. 

On opening my school according to contract 
on Monday, at 9 a. m. , I found about twenty-five 
pupils in attendance, among whom was a bright, 
smart colored boy, about nineteen years of age. 
I requested the pupils to take their seats as they 
had been accustomed to. The seats were arranged 
somewhat in this manner: the benches extended 
entirely around the house; plain, continuous 
boards were ranged in front upon standards, so as 
to form a desk in common for about five pupils 
each. The colored boy, "Lew," occupied the 
middle seat, or the desk in front of the teacher's 
desk. As I proceeded with my work, and my 
first class was a reading class, they occupying the 
floor in a standing position, I noticed that the 
pupils who were not engaged in this class were 
preoccupied by some mischief, which led theifi to 



94 REMINISCENCES. 

titter and whisper, and to fall into other forms of 
disturbance. Not perceiving the cause of this mer- 
riment, I restrained myself until I should ascertain 
why or how it happened. I soon discovered, from 
the direction of the children's glances, that the 
darkey. Lew, was the center of the mischief. He 
was a great mimic, and was taking off my per- 
formances to the amusement of the younger chil- 
dren. Immediately I addressed myself to Lew, 
in words something like these: "I discover that 
you are not inclined to be very studious, young 
man. I think you will make less trouble and find 
less trouble if you will apply yourself more closely 
to the book you have before you." His response 
was a good-natured grin, equivalent to "What 
are you going to do about it?" I continued: "If 
this disturbance is repeated, I shall be compelled 
to take charge of you myself." This was an- 
swered by a grimace of defiance, as much as to 
say, "Touch me if you dare! " Now he was two 
years older and twenty per cent, heavier than I 
was. I was afterward informed that he had 
broken up several previous schools by similar per- 
formances. The children generally sided with 
him, and he was a very popular individual, so far 
as they were concerned. I told the class with 
which I was engaged to take their seats. Said I : 
"Young man, I want you to come out here to 
me," and stepped toward him with no pleasant 
expression probably. He seized the desk with 
both his hands, as I grasped his collar with both 



MY FIRST SCHOOL. 95 

of mine. I stood upon a small seat in front of the 
continuous desk, behind which he was seated. I 
gave him a jerk with whatever of energy and will- 
force I could apply, and the teacher, the darkey 
and the desk came over into the middle of the 
floor in a pile. It happened, however, that the 
teacher was on top. Said I: "Are you willing 
now to get up and behave yourself?" Said he, 
with an oath: " You get off of me." I replied: "I 
shall get off from you when you promise to be- 
have, and not before." Said he: "I'll not behave 
as long as you are on top of me." I jumped up 
and began to kick him, yet holding him down on 
the floor. I treated him roughly; and when he 
began to whimper and the children around the 
room were crying and my strength was somewhat 
exhausted, I remitted my efforts and again in- 
quired: "Will you get up now and take your 
seat and behave?" He replied, whimpering: "If 
you will let me get up I will go home." At that, 
I sat down upon him and pounded him, exerting 
the best energies I had in the practice of muscular 
Christianity. Presently he begged that I would let 
him up. He said that he would get up and go to 
his seat. Said I: "Will you behave and let these 
children alone?" He said: "I won't let you 
alone. " So I thought it necessary to make another 
reformatory application. Inquiring again if he 
would get up, go to his seat and behave, he blub- 
bered at last that he would. I let him up. He 
went to his seat and never gave me any more 



96 REMINISCENCES. 

trouble. He proved one of the best pupils I ever 
had — a very good-natured boy ; but he had been 
petted and spoiled by the people who raised him, 
and by the children whom he had amused. I was 
told by the family who raised him, with whom I 
afterward boarded, that it was really the best 
thing that ever happened to Lew, for he was really 
a good boy, so far as they were concerned. Now 
I do not wish my young friends, who may read 
this, to suppose that I give this incident as an ex- 
ample of skillful school management. On the 
contrary, it was abominable ; but it was the best I 
knew under the circumstances, at that time. It 
secured for me the- respect of my pupils, and 
of all their parents, so far as I learned. If I had 
the thing to do over again I should pursue an' 
entirely different course. As it was, however, I 
had no further difficulty in government. 

Having attended only one district school in 
my life, and that but for three months, the 
teacher being Dr. Goodson, I was led to practice 
the extreme of explanation, from his utter paucity 
in that article, as he never gave any explanations 
whatever, but held us closely to the text and let- 
ter of the book. In managing my classes — and, 
by the way, he never had any but reading classes, 
each pupil reciting in other subjects when called 
upon — I assumed that nothing should be done or 
said or recited that was not fully explained, either 
by the pupil or by the teacher. Of course, the 
teacher had nearly all the explanation to do. This 



MY FIRST SCHOOL. 9/ 

was especially true in arithmetic. Alter mana- 
ging the most advanced arithmetic class of about 
eight pupils in this manner for two weeks, I found 
that very little study was done by any member of 
the class, and that the recitation was about as irk- 
some to them as it was trying and discouraging to 
me. I thought I was doing the best possible by 
demanding and giving explanations of every step 
in every process. At the close of a recitation 
of this class, occurring on the third week of 
school, at 12 o'clock, while walking to Mr. Rob- 
inson's, my boarding-place, I said to myself: 
"What is the matter with the arithmetic class? 
Arithmetic certainly ought to be made interest- 
ing, and the study exciting, and I am not accom- 
plishing anything but my own defeat and the 
discouragement of my pupils; what is the matter? 
Is it because the subject is in itself so dry and re- 
pulsive? No ; it is most useful and necessary. Is 
it, then, because this class is unusually mischievous 
and troublesome? No; these children are just as 
good as any other children. The trouble is not 
with the children. The difficulty, Alfred Hol- 
brook, is with yourself; you don't know how to 
interest them; you don't know how to teach." 
The afternoon was passed much as usual — hearing 
the children read and recite their geography and 
work at their penmanship ; a specially gloomy 
time was it all through. I went to my boarding- 
place at night very much disheartened, not know- 
ing whether I ought to abandon the school or 
7 



98 REMINISCENCES. 

what I ought to do. I concluded that something 
must be done. I was too much excited and cha- 
grined to eat my supper, or, indeed, to sleep any 
that night. Though I had never expected to 
teach, and, least of all, expected to make teaching 
my life-work, the idea of being defeated in any- 
thing I had undertaken from my own incapacity 
was more than I could bear. Some time in the 
early morning a revelation came to me. It was 
this: "You have been making a fool of yourself 
— try a better plan." This revelation was a new 
inspiration, and I was just as confident of the 
proper management of that class and school as I 
was after it was accomplished. I went to my 
school that morning a new creature. When the 
arithmetic class was called at half-past eleven, I 
said to the class: " Instead of reciting the lesson 
I assigned for the day, we will look at the next 
lesson, and see what is to be done." The subject- 
matter was the rule for the Division of Denomi- 
nate Numbers. I commenced a preliminary drill 
on the rule, requesting the pupils to work an ex- 
ample step by step, as the rule directed, calling 
upon one pupil to work the example on the black- 
board. By the way, so far as I know, this was 
the first blackboard ever used in a public school 
in the State of Connecticut. I had made it my- 
self. It will be remembered this was in 1833. 
The children continued working the example step 
by step, as the rule directed, until one little 
brown-eyed girl looked up at me very prettily, 



MY FIRST SCHOOL. 99 

and said : " Mr. Holbrook, why do we bring down 
that number there?" "Why, Mary, the book 
says so, doesn't it?" She pushed the inquiry no 
farther — she was too timid. Another, however, 
took up the inquiry: "I don't understand, Mr. 
Holbrook, why we multiply and bring down that 
number there. You told us we ought to under- 
stand it ourselves, and not take what the book 
says, and I don't understand it." "Oh, well," 
said I, "the book is all right, isn't it?" "I don't 
know; I don't understand it." "Well," said I, 
"go according to the book this time." One little 
fellow, the son of the Presbyterian minister, put 
his head around back of the one he was sitting 
with, and said to the next one in a whisper: " I 
don't believe he understands it himself" I had 
now accomplished my purpose. I had really 
aroused an interest in knowing the reason why. 
I had been forcing reasons down their intellectual 
throats in such a manner as to nauseate and repel. 
From that time onward my school was my joy 
and pride. This was my first discovery in peda- 
gogics. This little Mary French, who started the 
question "why," was a very diligent student, and 
liad gone through Woodbridge's Geography three 
or four times, and did not like to be in the 
class which had only gone through it once or 
twice, and wanted to know if I would not hear her 
recite separately. She said: " My ma told me to 
ask you if I could not recite by myself" I re- 
plied: "Mary, your mother does not control this 



lOO REMINISCENCES. 

school. Give her my compliments, and tell her I 
am teacher here." Now, it is not to be supposed 
that I would have any one imitate this piece of 
bad management. However, Mrs. French, being 
a sensible and good-natured woman, instead of 
making a fuss about such a message, took it 
kindly, and when she met me, thanked me for the 
course I had taken. 

My next boarding-place in "boarding 'round" 
was at Mr. Munson's, a hatter, also a farmer and 
butcher, at least, so far as his own meat was con- 
cerned. The first supper that I took there con- 
sisted of boiled beef, hot bread and burnt rye 
coffee, all of which was rather novel, except the 
beef, which I think must have been an old cow, 
past twenty-five years of age. I took a piece in 
my mouth, but did not succeed in masticating it, 
so put it down under the side of my plate. There 
were seven children in this family, good children 
enough; I liked them all; but I did not like the 
idea of spending all my hours out of school at 
the family kitchen fire, as it was expected I would 
dp. When I requested to be shown to bed, the 
eldest daughter was directed to show me to my 
room. Passing up-stairs, she went into their spare 
chamber, a large, comfortable room, neatly fur- 
nished, and I thought I was going to have very 
pleasant quarters in my new abode. It was a 
consideration, as I expected to board at this place 
five weeks. Instead of setting down the light in 
this room, she passed through into another, say- 



MY FIRST SCHOOL. Id 

ing that I would find my bed in that room. She 
left the light and me to our own radiant reflec- 
tions. I found a very hard bed, with insufficient 
clothing, the sheets being woolen blankets, which 
had been thoroughly fulled in washing, and were 
as hard as a board ; and the whole, bed and all, 
under the garret stairs. I must confess I was some- 
what disgusted. Nor did I think that the profes- 
sion of teaching was so utterly menial that I ought 
to be treated worse than an ordinary hired hand. 
But I concluded to make the best of it, and to en- 
dure whatever came. I had enlisted for the cause 
and would prove no deserter. I waked happy 
the next morning; felt jolly in contriving some 
new artifice for my school. I really believe I 
made friends of these children and their parents: 
the only modification of my quarters being that I 
requested another bed-quilt or two. 

I next boarded at Mr. Babbitt's. Now this 
was the most respectable family in town. Two 
sons were in business in New York; two hand- 
some and very intelligent daughters were at home 
with their mother.. A hired hand and the family 
servant, with the mother and daughters, made up 
the family. As I was taking my seat at the sup- 
per table for the first time with these young 
ladies, I found an atmosphere of culture, refine- 
ment and all the appointments of good society, 
and their very best set out for the entertainment 
of their teacher. In fact, the poorest of this 
family was better than the best that the Munson 



I02 REMINISCENCES. 

family ever furnished for the entertainment of 
their friends. My private room was the best the 
house contained, and was made comfortable for 
me in every respect to pursue my studies as I 
pleased. For instance : when I retired at night, 
on turning back the bed covers, I thought they 
were exceedingly light for that cold night; but, 
being too bashful to call for any more bed covers, 
I bravely crept under the cover, expecting to 
freeze before morning. I fell asleep, and on wak- 
ing was perfectly comfortable. I inspected the cov- 
ering under which I had slept so delightfully, and 
found it made of down. I congratulated myself 
that I haa not committed the blunder of asking 
for more bed-clothing before I had given the down 
a trial. It is hardly necessary to say that all my 
time in this house was not spent in my studies in 
my room. The young ladies were too attractive 
and intelligent, and it seemed to me, exerted 
themselves most beautifully to entertain the boy- 
teacher that had been sent to them in the ordinary 
course of "boarding around." I regretted the 
time when I was compelled to find another board- 
ing-place, especially as the young ladies urged me 
to continue a few days longer, saying that they 
hardly thought I had got my money's worth in 
such board as they provided. By the way, their 
table was most lavishly furnished. 

My time being about to expire there, I requested 
the children to inquire of their parents when it 
would be convenient for me to board with them, 



MY FlllST SCHOOL. I03 

respectively, or who would be ready to receive 
me next. The following morning there was an un- 
usually bitter, cold, driving snow-storm; but about 
half an hour after school opened, we heard a 
stamping and wheezing and puffing in the hall. 
Not knowing what or who the arrival might be, I 
requested one of the children to open the door, 
when my young friend, Walter Carleton, made his 
appearance, nearly stiff with cold, but sufficiently 
excited with the news he was about to impart. 
"Well, Walter, what is it?" " My Aunt Maria 
says, Mr. Holbrook, that we are going to kill the 
old sow next Saturday, and she would like to have 
you come and board with us just as soon after 
that as you can." "Very well, Walter; tell your 
Aunt Maria I shall be there next Saturday night, 
unless I have other orders from her." I found 
my home with Aunt Maria and her worthy sister 
a very pleasant one. My acquaintance with those 
good maiden ladies was of real value. They were 
pious, devoted Christians, well read in all the lit- 
erature of the times. They seemed to take a 
deep interest in my religious welfare, for which I 
was not sufficiently thankful at the time. On the 
second or third night of my boarding with them 
occurred the great meteoric storm of 1833. These 
devoted Christian ladies, frop their own account 
of it afterward, met what they supposed to be 
the judgment day with excitement and terror, 
mingled with reverence and awe. Their descrip- 
tion of their feelings, and of the phenomena of the 



I04 REMINISCENCES. 

night, were sufficiently interesting and exciting to 
me, who had lost entirely, in a continued sleep, 
the interest, beauty and wonder of the occasion. 

It must be remembered that I had everything to 
learn from my first school, in managing and teach- 
ing children. I had attended school but little, 
and that under coercive and repressive plans ; and 
not having ever thought of teaching as a tempo- 
rary business, much less as a life-work, I had lit- 
tle idea how it was to be done, and no disposition 
to study the subject. But really every day to me, 
in my school experience, was a day of study, ex- 
periments, and of partial or complete success. 
Thus my first school was a series of continued ex- 
citements, and of triumphs over new and unex- 
pected difficulties. 

It had never been my purpose to be a teacher, 
for I had concluded, after finding it impossible to 
live in Boston and pursue my father's business, 
that my health would require open air employ- 
ment ; and thus I had decided that my life-work 
should be that of engineering. Nor did I abandon 
this idea for many years afterward, although de- 
feated again and again in my efforts in this direc- 
tion. 

In carrying on my preparation for engineering, 
I formed a literary society, including the more ad- 
vanced pupils and other young people of the town 
of Monroe. We met weekly for purposes of im- 
provement in debate, reading and criticising es- 
says, in elocutionary readings, and in the reading 



MY FIRST SCHOOL. 10$ 

of a weekly paper edited by one of the members. 
We named our literary society "The Monroe 
Lyceum." Among the exercises were several 
scientific lectures, delivered by myself, accom- 
panied by illustrations on the blackboard, and with 
such simple apparatus as I could construct in that 
village. I was encouraged to think, from the 
satisfaction which these efforts for gaining lit- 
erary power seemed to give to all my audience, 
that I could, if I so desired, prepare myself for a 
public lecturer, and for the organization of lyce- 
ums, as my father was doing before me. I was, 
however, more intent upon pursuing my chosen 
life-work, or rather my preparation for it, and for 
this reason declined the offer of continuing the 
school through the summer at the same rate — $14. 
per month. This offer was the more acceptable, 
as it had been customary for a lady to teach the 
summer school at $4 per month. 

It was the law at that time in Connecticut that 
in order that any district should draw its public 
money from the school fund, the Directors should 
certify to the Township Treasurer that they had 
visited the school twice during the term for which 
the money was drawn. My term of six months 
had nearly expired and the Directors had not yet 
made their appearance. I inquired of different 
members of the board, at different times, when 
they would be pleased to make me their legal and 
formal visit. "Oh," they said, " they would come 
in some time when they could get together, and 



I06 REMINISCENCES. 

could make it convenient." I waited rather anx- 
iously the last week, expecting them every day ; 
but the last day came and the Directors had not 
yet made even one visit. Then I supposed they 
would make one visit in the morning and the other 
in the afternoon, to comply with the law. But 
the forenoon passed, and yet no visitors. The 
time of closing school for the term arrived. I 
made my closing speech, not alluding in the least 
to the visitors, and dismissed my school. As the 
first pupils were passing out of the door, the Di- 
rectors entered, and inquired very quietly if school 
was dismissed? I replied: "The school is dis- 
missed for the term." "Never mind," said a,. 
Director, "call them back and we will visit the 
school as the law requires." It occurred to me, 
" How will you visit them twice?" The children 
were seated, and one of the visitors made a few 
remarks, complimenting the teacher and the pupils, 
and informed me that I could give the children a 
recess. So the children were excused for five 
minutes, being told to return at the usual signal. 
The visitors went out to a store near by. After 
the children had taken their seats again, the Di- 
rectors made their second visit, bowing to the 
school and the teacher. Another member of the 
committee expressed his views of the school, stat- 
ing his appreciation of the cheerful and happy 
condition of all concerned, and giving us his con- 
gratulations, and hoped that some one of those 
present might one day become President of the 



MY FIRST SCHOOL. lO/ 

United States. The Committee withdrawing, 
the school was dismissed again. The legal de- 
mands were answered, and my salary was secured 
from the school fund. 

Soon after commencing my work in Monroe, 
there appeared a young Frenchman amongst the 
children one day, taking his seat with the other 
pupils. I found that he was a fresh arrival from 
Paris, and was sent by his uncle in New York to 
Monroe to learn English in a country school. At the 
time it appeared to me sufficiently absurd. He could 
say only "thank you," "if you please," and re- 
peat the ordinary oaths which he had heard from 
the sailors, coming across the ocean. And that 
he should be sent to a school to learn English ! 
But noticing the rapid progress of this young man 
from his contact with the children in the school- 
room and on the play-ground, day after day, I 
concluded that his uncle knew more about teach- 
ing language than I ever dreamed of In less than 
five months, he could speak English more rapidly 
than any boy on the play-ground, but not, per- 
haps, as correctly. When he was sufficiently ad- 
vanced, he told me his uncle had assured him he 
could learn English the most rapidly and cor- 
rectly in a public school. He was being trained 
for a clerk in his uncle's jewelry shop, and he was 
thus placed among children to learn English in its 
simplest expressions and in its purest idiomatic 
forms. This was a lesson in the study of languages 
which has been of use to me in all succeedingf 



I08 REMINISCENCES. 

years. In consequence, I have never furnished 
an American teacher for a foreign language, nor 
permitted my pupils to waste their time in such a 
hopeless manner. 

After closing my career in Monroe, I made my 
arrangements to go to New York, and prosecute 
my preparations for the business of engineering. 



CHAPTER VII. 



MY EXPERIENCES IN NEW YORK CITY. 

In the early summer of 1835, I went to New 
York City, without letters of introduction or 
recommendation, seeking for such business as 
would give me support and preparation for the 
profession of engineering. There were no en- 
gineering-schools, and had there been, I would not 
have been able to attend them as a pupil. It was 
necessary that I should make my own support. 
In looking about the city, for an establishment 
where engineering instruments were manufactured, 
the first that I came to of this kind, was Blunt's, 
corner of Water Street and Maiden Lane. I ad- 
dressed one of the brothers, asking him if he 
wished to hire a hand. " What can you do, sir?" 
"I don't know, indeed, sir, until I am tried.'' 
"What wages do you expect?" ** No more than 
I am worth, sir." "Who is to determine what 
you are worth?" " I will leave that to you, sir; 
but you will surely be willing to pay me my 
board?" "Have you ever worked with tools?" 
"Yes, sir," "Well, when do you wish to begin ?** 
This was about the middle of the afternoon. 
(109) 



no REMINISCENXES. 

"Now, sir, if you please." He spoke to his fore- 
man in the fourth story, through a speaking-tube, 
telHng him that a new hand would be sent up to 
him. I passed up, and found myself in a shop 
with about a dozen workmen. The foreman placed 
me at a heavy lathe. The work he set me at was 
that of turning gimbals, about twelve inches in 
diameter, for mariners' compasses. Remember- 
ing that I was on trial, I did my very best, so 
much so, that I had very little sleep that night, 
I was on hand in good time the next morning, de 
termined to push through my work, but after 
turning several of these brass rings, I told the 
foreman, who was an intelligent Yankee, that it 
was rather hard work for me to begin with, and if 
he would give me something lighter for a day or 
two, I should then be able to do this kind of work. 
He did so, and I was so successful in various kinds 
of work given me, that I had the exquisite satis- 
faction, at the end of the week, of receiving pay 
for my time at the rate of a dollar a day, in silver 
dollars. The foreman himself, only received $i.$0, 
and the other hands, ;^i.25. The next week I 
was paid $y for six days' work, which, to me, 
under the circumstances, was very encouraging. 
I had secured board at a respectable house in the 
Bowery, with a cousin, the managing editor of a 
daily paper. My fellow-boarders were two married 
gentlemen with their wives and children, two edi- 
tors, four journeyman printers, four young ladies 
employed in a hat establishment, besides the niece 



MY EXPERIENCES IN NEW YORK CITY. Ill 

of my landlady. Our hostess was the wife of the 
brotKer of the partner of Horace Greely. She 
was an educated lady, yet of most excellent busi- 
ness ability. Her husband proving a wreck from 
intemperance, she was obliged to support herself 
and her children. The niece was taking music 
lessons in the city, and paid her board. With 
such a variety of minds and employments, my ex- 
periences in my New York home were full of in- 
cidents, and sufficiently novel and spicy. Our 
discussions on politics, science and religion were 
continuous, earnest, and in some cases, rather 
belligerent. Among our male boarders we had a 
Mr. Mitchell, who was an avowed skeptic ; two 
Universalists ; three Nothingarians, as they called 
themselves ; and the little Presbyterian, myself. 
In all the discussions, whether in politics, or relig- 
ion, or science, I stood by the standard, and read 
up for every discussion, which I thought it possible 
to provoke. Thus, my evenings were occupied, 
either in this running social converse and vivacious 
discussion, or in my room with my books, of 
which I had a very considerable collection. Not- 
withstanding that in my opinion, the other young 
men, being unmarried, were entirely my superiors 
in physique, and in knowledge of the world, and 
in familiarity with society usages, I was not a lit- 
tle flattered in being selected by Miss M , the 

niece before spoken of, as the recipient of a free 
ticket of admission from her, to the rehearsals of 
the New York Society of Music, and their public 



112 REMINISCENCES. 

concerts. This was my first experience in listen- 
ing to any other music than that found in reHg- 
ious circles and societies. For, in Boston, I had 
never been present at concerts, and only once at 
the theater. There were a sufficient number of 
boarders in our house for all sorts of amusements 
and games and plays within our own parlor. It 
was. proposed, however, one night, that we should 
visit a public ball, given on Broadway. Each 
gentleman selected his lady from the party, and I 
found myself, for the first time, in a promiscuous 
dance. Not, that I took any part in the dancing, 
for I never took a dancing step in my life, but it 
was a novel scene. My partner. Miss House- 
holder, was kept upon the floor in every set of the 
evening. This gave me leisure to make my ob- 
servations. It was the first and last " Public As- 
sembly " that I ever attended. On returning from 
Broadway to the Bowery, I took the lead, and 
making a mistake in choosing the street for cross- 
ing the Bowery, I led my company into the very 
center of Five Points. Such sights, and such 
sounds, and such performances as were presented, 
and impossible to avoid, made, in my opinion, a 
good moral impression on most of the company. 
The dancing groups which we saw, were many 
grades lower than the one Avhich we had left, but 
still, to my mind, a legitimate sequence in im- 
moral descent. Occasionally, I visited the theater, 
but usually with a lady of whom I was proud, 
but I spent very little money on the theater com- 



MY EXPERIENCES IN NEW YORK CITY. I 1 3 

pared with the other young men of our company. 
My observations upon city Hfe and city associa- 
tions, even with the respectable parties with which 
I was famihar, were sufficient, independent of any 
rehgious convictions, to insure my safety against 
all the seductions of city life. 

My common evening employment, as I have be- 
fore stated, was with my books, in pursuing my 
studies, and in reading such other volumes as I 
could borrow from the Mechanics' Institute Li- 
brary. This association was designed to afford a 
respectable and safe place for evening entertain- 
ment. The membership fee was only ^i, and a 
course of scientific lectures was furnished; com- 
petent and interesting lecturers were employed to- 
give us a course of weekly lectures on chemistry. 
I had myself, in Boston, given considerable at- 
tention to this science, and had been engaged in 
the manufacture of chemical apparatus, with my 
father. I was sufficiently interested to attend 
these lectures regularly, and to invite a young 
lady to go with me. Almost every lecture was 
attended with some experience not laid down in 
the programme. On one occasion, while attend- 
ing a lecture by Dr. Gale, on chemistry, he was 
manufacturing water, by passing an electric spark 
through a gallon measure of oxygen and hydrogen 
contained in a heavy glass globe. This globe was 
connected by means of a stopcock, with a larger 
vessel containing many gallons of those two gases 
mingled in suitable proportions. He managed 



114 REMINISCENCES. 

the stopcock, and his assistant turned the electric 
machine which furnished the spark. In explain- 
ing the theory, he neglected, at a certain point, to 
turn the stopcock, while the attendant, as usual, 
turned his machine. The result was a terrible ex- 
plosion of the gas in the larger vessel, as well as 
in the smaller one. The lights were extinguished, 
the glass globe was fractured, and the screams of 
the ladies added excitement to the disaster. The 
attendant hastened to light the gas, and found the 
Doctor badly wounded in his arm, and blood flow- 
ing freely. No other one in the room was injured, 
although I was conscious of a fragment of glass 
passing near my right ear. The Doctor quietly re- 
marked that the demonstration of the force of the 
gases was rather more striking, so far as he was 
concerned, than he had intended, I said to my com- 
panion, it was a more interesting experiment, ex- 
cepting the Doctor's wound, than I had paid for. 

.On another occasion, the Doctor exhibited the 
power of oxygen as a supporter of combustion, in 
connection with phosphorus. Whether he was 
aware of the quantity of phosphorus he had used, 
or not, I am not able to say, but another ex- 
plosion followed as before. The lights were ex- 
tinguished, and the ladies screamed. I heard a 
a lady in my rear groan as if badly wounded- 
When the lights were restored, it was found that 
this lady was very badly wounded in her cheek. The 
Doctor was called, she was taken to an adjoining 
room, and the lecture, for this time, was adjourned. 



MY EXPERIENCES IN NEW YORK CITY. II 5 

all feeling that either the Doctor was too lavish of 
his materials, or too lacking in previous experi- 
ence. 

After the lectures on chemistry were concluded, 
Mr. Graham, of Graham-bread notoriety, was em- 
ployed to give a course of lectures on diet. There 
was not enough of variety or interest in this to 
hold the attendance. As I now remember, these 
lectures closed my connection with the Mechanics' 
Institute. But the greatest advantage of this In- 
stitute was that it furnished me all the books I 
needed, in order to pursue my studies and reading. 
This course of study and reading in my evening 
hours, was then, as it ever has been, a leading 
feature of my life, and perhaps contributed more 
than any other human means to my moral safety. 
And it seems to me now, as far as I can observe, 
that the parent who does not furnish his family 
with home reading, or the young man or young 
woman who does not furnish himself with this 
kind of occupation and interest, is very derelict in 
his duty, and throws his family or himself into 
very unnecessary and dangerous temptation. My 
studies were frequently protracted until eleven or 
twelve o'clock at night, after working ten hours a 
day in the mathematical instrument shop, and no 
doubt, the lack of sleep and the want of muscular 
activity, for I was th-en furnished with the nice 
and delicate work which confined me to a seat, 
were causes of the sudden collapse of my health. 
My employers were very patient with me, and 



Il6 REMINISCENCES. 

generally paid me full wages when I was detained 
on account of sickness, as I frequently was one or 
two days in a week. I became dissatisfied with 
this kind of life, and concluded I would seek a 
change in the country. It was at this time 
that I went to West Troy, and obtained employ- 
ment with the Meneely's Mathematical Instrument 
Makers. My work was agreeable, and my wages 
were better than in the city, but my health was 
miserable. I returned again to the city, thinking 
that I would try to board myself, and pursue 
such a regimen as would relieve my dyspepsia. 
This experiment was only a partial success. It 
was during this period of boarding myself, and 
working as well as my health would admit, 
that I received a visit from my father, who was 
then lecturing in Pennsylvania. In May of 1836, 
he came to attend the National Association of Ed- 
ucation, which he had previously been instru- 
mental in organizing in Boston. My father's 
dissatisfaction with the course pursued by the 
gentlemen who were leaders in this enterprise was 
very forcibly expressed, in language something 
like this: "There is nothing that can be accepta- 
ble to these gentlemen, that I have not tried and 
rejected in teaching, years ago, and anything new 
I may propose for the consideration of the Asso- 
ciation is dismissed as impr^^cticable and visionary. 
The time will come, however," said he, "when 
these gentlemen or their successors will say that 
the measures which I have proposed, are such as 



MY EXPERIENCES IN NEW YORK CITY. 11/ 

have been entertained and practiced by all educa- 
tors from the time of Socrates, though now 
they declare them revolutionary and visionary," 
Not being then a teacher myself, or expecting to 
be, I took comparatively little interest in my 
father's work in education. Since then, and es- 
pecially for the last twenty years, father's experi- 
ence of fifty years ago has often recurred to me in 
my experience with leading educators and others 
of my time. 

At our boarding-place in the Bowery, we had 
occasionally, as an invited guest, at our dinner- 
table on Sabbath, Horace Greeley. Mr. Greeley 
added but little to the interest of the occasion, for 
the reason that he was rather reticent, and not par- 
ticularly attractive in person. He was even then 
conceived to be a kind of curiosity. The same 
method of wearing his hat, and the same old white 
overcoat in which he has been caricatured, made 
up a part of his personal appearance. I do not 
remember that he made a single brilliant or inter- 
esting observation during the several occasions 
when he was with us at the long Sunday dinners. 
His paper at that time was beginning to excite at- 
tention, and his robust and energetic thinking was 
making for itself its own channel through politics, 
agriculture, and social improvements. Little did 
I think at that time that Horace Greeley would 
afterward stand at the head of the profession of 
journalism, or that he would ever be a candidate 



Il8 . REMINISCENCES. 

for the Presidency, for any party whatever, and 
much less for the Democratic party. 

Our hostess, one day, came in to dinner with a 
letter in her hand, remarking : " It is too good to 

keep ; I must read you this letter. Mr. P has 

just left us, and I suppose not to return. He had 
put into my hands this letter from a lady of New 
Jersey, who is reputed to be immensely wealthy, 
having an income of ;^20,ooo a year." Perhaps I 
ought to have mentioned that this gentleman was 
a refugee from Ireland. He had been appre- 
hended and imprisoned by the British Govern- 
ment, as having been engaged in treasonable 
meetings in Ireland. He was well aware that the 
testimony was sufficient to hang him for treason. 
During the three days that he was incarcerated, 
expecting to be tried and convicted, his consterna- 
tion and agony were of such an intense character, 
that, being released as he was, through bribing his 
jailer, he found that his hair had turned white, al- 
though he was only twenty-five years old. He 
was, otherwise than his hair, one of the finest 
specimens of physical manhood that I ever saw. 
The letter which the good lady read to us — and 
she said it was not a letter which she conceived to 
be of a confidential nature— was simply an offer of 
marriage from the wealthy New Jersey lady to our 

friend Mr. P . She further remarked that he had 

consulted her in regard to the propriety of his ac- 
cepting her overtures, and she had told him that 
she was utterly unable to decide ; in fact, he had 



MY EXPERIENCES IN NEW YORK CITY, II9 

nothing to do but consult his own feehngs and in- 
terest. As she described it, the poor man was 
utterly at a loss, and suffered intensely from anx- 
iety. She smilingly remarked, that she hoped 
his anxiety would turn his hair black again, as it 
had previously turned it white. Whether he ever 
married the New Jersey lady or not, (we were in- 
formed she was over sixty) I never ascertained, 
and I never heard anything more of the handsome 
Irishman. 

While I was employed in New York City in 
pursuing the preparation for my proposed profes- 
sion — engineering — this circumstance occurred: 
A Catholic gentleman came to our boarding-place 
at the instance of the white-haired Irishman, who 
was also a Catholic, and made a pleasant impres- 
sion. He claimed to be, and no doubt was, an 
Italian nobleman. After the loss of young 

Mr. P , our Italian friend disappeared, and I 

heard no more from him for some weeks. The 
papers then had a long account of an affair in 
Baltimore, which I shall here condense: 

It seems that, having adopted the vocation of 
priest in Italy, and having given up his estates to 
the Church, he had found himself so restless that 
he concluded to take orders as a missionary in 
foreign parts. The circumstances of his taking 
orders, as related in the papers, were these: He 
was a nobleman by birth, the heir to extensive es- 
tates in the Pope's dominions in Northern Italy. 
At Rome he met a princess, the heiress, also, to 



I20 REMINISCENXES. 

immense estates in Southern Italy, A mutual at- 
tachment sprung up, and they were engaged to 
be married at a not remote time in the future. A 
brisk correspondence was carried on, as is usual 
in such cases; but at length the correspondence 
waned ; the letters were not immediately answered. 
The prince now and then received a letter, but at 
length the princess's letters ceased entirely, and 
he learned from a priest, the father confessor of 
the princess, that she was sick with a dangerous 
disease, and was furthermore informed that it 
would be fatal to her if she were subjected, in this 
condition, to the excitement of seeing him. Thus 
he was deterred from making further investiga- 
tion, waiting most anxiously the result of this 
sickness. He was at length informed that she 
"had died and was buried. Under such circum- 
stances, in his despair, and in the consolations 
which were rendered by the Church, he was led to 
devote himself to the Church and to immure him- 
self in a monastery as one of the brethren. He 
passed two or three years in this condition, se- 
cluding himself almost from human intercourse, 
and thus taking upon himself what he supposed 
to be voluntary punishment of his sins in addition 
to the loss of his beloved one. Recovering some- 
what in course of time from his depression, he 
sought an opportunity from his superiors to obtain 
an appointment on a mission to foreign parts, not 
in the least abjuring his vows or claiming his es- 
tates. He passed through France and England 



MY EXPERIENCES IN NEW YORK CITY. 121 

and America, all the while keeping himself in as- 
sociation with the brethren of his order, who were 
found in almost every Catholic community. After 
leaving New York, as I have before said, he vis- 
ited the Catholic College of Baltimore. Now, 
with that college is connected a convent, the first, 
most extensive and wealthy of any of the convents 
in America. In one of his visits to the convent, 
and to the chapel where the nuns were accus- 
tomed to worship, he, from some accident or mis- 
direction or misunderstanding of the course he 
should take to reach the chapel, passed through a 
hall designed exclusively for the use of the nuns. 
The nuns, not now being in public, had removed 
their veils, and were, no doubt, a little surprised 
to see a man in that unwonted locality. Our 
priest was also somewhat discomposed by the suc- 
cession and array of beauties that passed under 
his unexpected observation. As he became inter- 
terested in their countenances, his eyes met those 
of his princess among the nuns. They, of course, 
recognized each other, but not a word, not a lisp, 
not a sign, passed between them ; they understood 
their ground too well. Now the object was to get 
communication with each other. The servants 
around such establishments are not entirely be- 
yond price, and the prince managed in some way 
or other to secure the friendship and confidence 
of the servant who was accustomed to give her at- 
tentions to the most beautiful of the daughters of 
the Church. Their correspondence was carried on 



122 REMINISCENCES. 

through this means most industriously for a length 
of time. By some means the poor, impoverished 
priest, the prince that was, secured for the use of 
his princess a rope ladder, and she was enabled, 
under som.e holy pretense or other, to find herself 
in a cell which opened upon the outer grounds. 
Having this arrangement made, he appeared in 
the neighborhood with a covered carriage, and, 
finding himself under the appointed window of 
an outside cell, received her in his arms, as she 
descended by the rope ladder. They escaped ; 
but what was the sequel of this romantic affair — 
whether they obtained their estates and their titles 
— I never learned. It will be inferred that a simi- 
lar course of deceit had been practiced on the 
princess, and that her estates had been secured for 
the Church by similar means. But these circum- 
stances were the wonder of the day, or of the 
week, in the newspapers of New York and other 
cities. 

Speaking of the Catholics, I am reminded here 
of a circumstance related to me by my former 
partner, Dr. John Nichols, of Kirtland, now of 
Columbus. He was attending medical lectures at 
Transylvania University, Louisville, Ky. Being 
desirous of learning the French language, he ac- 
cepted, as a room-mate, a French Catholic, who 
was attending the same course of lectures with 
himself The conversation was held for the most 
part in French, and the frequent subject of discus- 
sion was the claims of the Catholic Church, 



MY EXPERIENXES IN NEW YORK CITY. 1 23 

ecclesiastically and historically considered. The 
.Frenchman had received an academical education 
in a Catholic college in Paris, and was well versed 
in all the literature and technique of the Catholic 
Church and priesthood, having been educated 
with the priests, but himself not yet having taken 
orders. There was no end of discussion; in fact, 
all the time consistent with the claims of their 
professional study was given to this matter of 
common interest — the claims (^pretensions, as Dr. 
Nichols termed it) of the Catholic Church, as 
the one and only successor and possessor of 
Christ's authority on earth. The history of the 
Catholic Church, as given by Dr. Nichols from 
Protestant writers, was treated with utter con- 
tempt by his room-mate, as utterly unworthy of 
credence or of respect. The doctor found that 
there was no historical statement made by any 
Protestant which militated in any way against the 
dignity and rectitude of the Church as a church, 
or against the Pope as a Pope, or the Cardinal as 
as a Cardinal, or priests as priests, in any of these 
special capacities, but there was a counterpart 
found in the Catholic books which the Frenchman 
had in his possession. No greater confidence or 
veneration or devotion could be possibly expressed 
or conceived than that which the gentleman gave 
to these authorities and to the Church at large. 
In his view, the Church was infallible and had 
never done wrong. Every form of persecution 
and assassination attributed to the Church, or any 



124 REMINISCENCES. 

of its officials, was utterly denied, or so modified 
as to prove the extreme liberality, charity, truth- 
fulness and faithfulness of the Church. These two 
gentlemen occupied adjoining rooms, one for 
study and the other as a sleeping-room, with two 
beds. Coming in from some business one day, 
the doctor overheard his chum talking earnestly 
and excitedly with a stranger in the bedroom, the 
stranger apparently attending meanwhile to his 
toilet. The doctor was a common occupant of the 
two rooms. The door was ajar, and the sum and 
substance of the conversation, as he gleaned it 
from the inquiries and protestations and exclama- 
tions of his room-mate, revealed to the doctor his 
utter disbelief and contempt of the Catholic Church 
and its assumptions ; of its priestcraft and its subju- 
gation of women, etc., etc. In speaking of this 
friend and that as having taken orders, of this 
young lady and that as having taken the veil, 
amazement was mingled with execrations of the 
priests and their managing to get possession of 
such remarkably intelligent men and beautiful and 
attractive women, and getting them under their 
priestly control. The doctor was, of course, in- 
terested in this line of revelation from his devoted 
Catholic friend ; but, the doctor coughing, or 
making some other audible sign, his chum opened 
the door, found him there and saw at once the sit- 
uation. "Oh," said the Frenchman, "you have 
caught me at last. Oh, well," said he, "you 
know well enough how it is ; religion is necessary 



MY EXPERIENCES IN NEW YORK CITY, 1 25 

for society, to control women and weak-minded 
men ; but so far as you and I and other intelligent 
men are concerned, in this country and France — 
bah! it's only so deep," making a gesture (by 
drawing his finger across his lips), supposed to 
signify "skin deep." "Now, doctor, confess — 
you have got to confess! — you have no more con- 
fidence in your Protestant fables than I have in 
the rigmaroles and stupidity and assumptions of 
our Church. Both are useful for women and chil- 
dren, to keep them in their places." 

One of our boarders was the confidential clerk 
in the establishment of Arthur Tappan, the lead- 
ing silk merchant of New York at that time. Now, 
several months previous to this, his house had 
been mobbed, his windows broken in, and much 
of his furniture ruined, while he escaped by a back 
passage. This frenzy of the mob was occasioned 
by the fact that he was an abolitionist. It was, 
perhaps, incited by his rivals in the silk trade, who 
had desired to secure that part of the Southern 
patronage which he controlled. His patronage 
was not diminished in any direction, but was very 
much increased in the North, by the mob which 
was set on by his rivals. His store was well 
guarded by private police, and was never at- 
tacked. The fire companies, however, refused to 
take risks on any of his property, either on his 
residence or on his silk establishment. On New 
Year's night, of 1836, commenced the great fire 
of New York, the first great fire on this Continent. 



126 KEMINISCENCES. 

I ascended to the observatory of my boarding-place, 
and looking for the fire, discovered that it was in 
the direction of rny place of business, and was an 
immense and rapidly extending conflagration. 
The fire continued all that night, and raged with 
uncontrolled fury. The bells were tolled in every 
direction, and there was little sleep in the city that 
night. There being no telegraph, word was sent 
as speedily as possible to Philadelphia and other 
places for help in the fire department. The fire- 
men and citizens were utterly exhausted ; water 
froze in the hose. It became impossible to obtain 
water, or when obtained, to throw it upon the 
fire. In the early part of the evening, "Old 
Hayes,'' High Sheriff of the city, ever on the alert, 
went to the post-office, and remarked to the post- 
master that he had better commence packing the 
letters for removal. The fire at that time was 
more than a mile from the post-office. The post- 
master pooh-poohed at the idea of the fire reach- 
ing that part of the city. Hayes went out to view 
the fire again. He returned and begged the post- 
master to prepare at once for removing the postal 
matter. The postmaster refused, and said it was 
impossible for the fire to come that distance. Hayes 
declared it would be there before morning, and 
went out again, and was gone but a few minutes, 
when he returned, and declared: "I command 
you in the name of the commonwealth of New 
York, immediately to begin the removal of these 
letters, or I shall take charge of them myself." 



MY EXPERIENCES IN NEW YORK CITY. 12/ 

The postmaster at once commenced to prepare 
for removal. The fire reached the post-office be- 
fore they could remove all the letters, to say noth- 
ing of the papers and other mail matter. The 
Sheriff had taken possession of the city, and had 
ordered out military companies in addition to all 
the police force, and at a sufficient distance from 
the ever-increasing energy of the fire, he placed 
kegs of powder under the beams of houses, and 
destroyed a sufficient number to check the on- 
ward march of the raging element. In this way 
only was the city saved from utter destruction. 
Going down to my place of business on the next 
day but one after the fire had been checked, and 
in a measure brought under control, I found that 
it had come within one block of our building. 
Passing down into the fire-district, I found a man 
here and there standing upon the wrecks of his for- 
tune. Especially do I remember the conversation 
of two men who were adjoining wholesale mer- 
chants. One said, " Did you save your books ?" 
"Yes; did you save yours?" "No, everything 
is gone. It is the only night for ten years that I 
have not taken my books out, but it was so cold 
I thought I would not take them." 

The insurance companies were all broken up, 
and paid from five to ten per cent, of all their in- 
surance claims. Now, Arthur Tappan had not 
been able to effect any insurance in any of the com- 
panies in New York, on account of being threat- 
ened by mobs and incendiaries. For this reason 



128 REMINISCENCES. 

he had obtained insurance, and full insurance too, 
in Boston companies. I was standing upon the 
debris of this immense estabhshment on Pearl 
Street, with the confidential clerk above mentioned, 
when he remarked to me that he had heard Mr. 
Tappan say a short time previous that he was 
worth more in consequence of the fire than if it 
had not occurred. While many other merchants 
had offered ^lO an hour for draymen to take away 
their goods to a place of safety, the colored dray- 
men had come without his solicitation, and charg- 
ing no more than the usual rates, and had taken 
all his goods to a colored church, in a remote part 
of the city. More than that, in consequence of 
the straightening and widening of the street, and 
the erection of new stores, and the greater attract- 
iveness of the location, for different forms of 
wholesale business, he was satisfied that the lots 
with the buildings burned upon them, for he owned 
a block, were worth more than they were before 
the fire. At the same time, of course, he recovered 
his insurance for whatever apparent loss he had 
been subjected to. So, in these ways, he was re- 
imbursed for the hazards that his maintenance of a 
principle had brought upon him. Not long after 
this, Mr, Tappan, with perhaps one or two other 
capitalists, furnished the means for beginning the 
educational career of Oberlin, Ohio. 

While in New York, I was accustomed to at- 
tend services on Sabbath wherever there was a 
prominent preacher or an eloquent speaker. Most 



MY EXPERIENCES IN NEW YORK CITY. I 29 

frequently was I found at the Chatham Street Thea- 
ter, then used by "Mr. Finney as a place of his 
great revival work. It was in the immediate 
vicinity of Five Points. His labors there, his 
earnestness, his eloquence, and his great success, 
drew immense crowds, more than could ever enter 
the building. I had always had my religious con- 
victions; for, trained as I was, it could not be 
otherwise, and I should have felt that religion was 
a positive, energizing power to save mankind, and 
bless our race ; but in the natural course, as I con- 
ceive, of all original and earnest thinkers, there 
came a time to me, a time of doubt, while attend- 
ing Mr. Finney's preaching. I don't remember 
that I read any infidel books. I had known of Tom 
Paine's cavilings, and I had been in conversation 
with many infidels, more or less, all my lifetime; 
and especially during the previous winter I had 
had many an argument with my fellow-boarder, 
Mr. Mitchell, on the authenticity of the Scriptures, 
and the validity of the Christian hope. It was not in 
consequence, so far as I can remember, of any- 
thing that Mr. Mitchell had presented, nor of my 
readings, as I have before said, that skepticism in- 
vaded my line of thought. But rather, as I now 
think, from my deductions, from the declarations 
and affirmations of Mr. Finney, and his what 
seemed to me unreasonable assertions of the power 
of the gospel in making man a new creature. I 
went through this terrible season of doubt. I 
don't know now that I ever should have recovered, 
9 



130 REMINISCENCES. 

if my health and youthful energies had not been 
impaired. The Lord knew better how to manage 
me than I knew how to manage myself. When my 
health had failed, my animal spirits were subsided, 
my hopes were shattered and my ambitions frus- 
trated, I had time and disposition then to reflect, 
and feel the utter helplessness of man in himself. 
In sickness, and disappointment, and defeat, I 
found spiritual deliverance, and learned to rejoice 
in a kind Providence, in his watchful care, and in his 
abounding mercies. Such an experience I should 
never perhaps, so far as I can see, have known, 
had not I been the subject of this merciful line of 
training.N 



CHAPTER VIII. 



MELISSA AND I. 

We were first cousins. I was two years older 
than she, but we were born in the same house, in 
the same room. It happened on this wise: After 
my Grandfather Holbrook's death, my father took 
charge of the home farm and occupied the house 
that had been built by his grandfather — an im- 
mense frame structure, with a chimney in the 
middle as large as most modern houses. During 
this time he was building a residence for himself 
on Sentinel Hill, about a quarter of a mile away. 
After my father moved, Aunt Irene Pierson, with 
her family, occupied the old homestead, while her 
husband was carrying on his business in the val- 
ley. The family nursery was, of course, occupied 
by each family. My grandfather and my thirteen 
uncles and aunts were also born in the same room. 

After my mother died, I being two and a half 
years old, my brother Dwight was taken by his 
Grandmother Swift and I by Aunt Craft, the wife 
of Dr. Craft,, the leading physician of Derby, and 
the oldest of my uncles or aunts. Melissa was 
named after this aunt, and was ever a child of 
(131) 



132 REMINISCENCES. 

special interest, as, of course, I was to this same 
aunt. As children we were both trained to self- 
denial; to active benevolence; to know that we 
were the children of many prayers ; to feel that re- 
ligion was a practical, living, working principle, 
and otherwise it was the worst of shams — hypoc- 
risy. 

As exemplifying my aunt's religion, I might 
state hundreds of facts, but two or three will suf- 
fice. While her income from her husband's es- 
tate — she having been left a widow about a year 
after she took me — was small, not more than three 
or four hundred dollars annually, her house was 
the home or refuge consecutively of several of my 
cousins who were, for the time, left homeless; also- 
for several others beyond the kindred, who were 
needy. 

For several years she added to her means of 
benevolence by dipping candles for the uptown 
store. It was my part to prepare the wood, the 
fire, the tallow, the candle-wicks and to trim the 
candles after they were dipped. I think she re- 
ceived a cent a pound for this work, the tallow 
and wicking being furnished. 

There were two maiden ladies living near us, 
great aunts of Melissa's, who were in indigent cir- 
cumstances. It was the business of Aunt Craft to 
see that these women were not wanting in either 
necessaries or comforts. For several years, 
through aunt's solicitations, not only was their 
"winter's wood furnished them by farmers who had 



MELISSA AND I. 133 

wood to sell, but her nephews and other boys 
were induced to make a chopping bee and cut up 
and split the big pile of wood thus furnished, and 
to carry it into the wood-house. The cake and 
pies for such occasions were given, in part, by my 
good aunt. The work done by us boys under 
such circumstances was reckoned as fun rather 
than as drudgery. While my aunt kept a com- 
fortable table for those whom she sheltered, it 
was a common remark that she would use nothing 
for herself that she could give away. Besides 
Aunt Craft and Aunt Pierson, we, Melissa and I, 
had two other married aunts in Derby. At the 
home of each of these, the several sisters, with 
their children, were accustomed to meet from 
time to time. Melissa and I were among the 
youngest at these gatherings, and played together 
as a part of the group. Melissa was a frequent 
visitor at Aunt Craft's; but the most definite recol- 
lection I have of her in our childhood was that I 
was set down by her side as a punishment, in our 
pay-school, conducted by Miss Julia Ann Tom- 
linson, afterwards, Mrs. George Blakeman. 
Whether or not it had the desired effect of keep- 
ing me out of mischief, I do not remember. It 
was my aunt's special aim to find work to keep 
me out of the streets, and work that I would 
cheerfully do. She frequently gave me stints in 
cutting and splitting wood, with some money 
compensation when the work was done. She en- 
couraged me to read, obtaining books by borrow- 



134 REMINISCENCES. 

ing or purchasing. She put me in charge of her 
cow and garden, always working with me when 
practicable. The only penalty she ever inflicted, 
that I remember, was when I had disobeyed her 
and gone away with other boys to the river for 
bathing, much to the injury of my health, as she 
thought, to look at me very sorrowfully on my 
return and say, with tears, "I am so sorry, Al- 
fred, that you will go with those boys, when you 
know that they are disobeying their parents as 
you are disobeying me." This was too much for 
me ; I broke down completely, and promised her 
that I would do everything she wished. 

When I was ten years of age and Melissa eight, 
Melissa's parents moved to Ohio. We were thus 
lost to each other for ten years, both developing 
under influences favorable for our future fitness 
for our united destinies and allotted work. 

I have heard Melissa say that she never knew 
when she was converted, and she could not re- 
member the time when she did not pray in secret 
and of her own accord. She was the leader in 
every good work, though modest and timid to the 
last degree, and continued so to the end, always 
placing everybody's interest and comfort before 
her own. 

In her girlhood, in Kirtland, she would go a 
mile every night through the woods in the dark, 
over an almost impassable road, to attend a revival 
meeting or a singing-school. She was put on all 
committees for active benevolent work. While 



MELISSA AND I. 135 

she was trained by her parents to habits of indus- 
try in the ordinary work of a country farmhouse, 
she always had a volume convenient to read in all 
odd moments. She made good use of Uncle 
Coe's library, containing all the works of the 
standard English writers, as Milton, Young, Cow- 
per, Addison, Johnson, etc. 

If she were only here I could get many more 
facts. I only give such as I came into the knowl- 
edge of from observation, or incidentally by narra- 
tion from others. She attended Oberlin one year 
and worked for her board in the boarding-hall. 
She was put in control of certain duties, as she 
was found to be the most interested in seeing that 
the work was done. 

When I came from the East, being then twenty- 
one years of age, I first became acquainted with 
her as a woman. She was the most intelligent, 
the best read, the most attractive of any of my 
Western cousins, and I soon found Melissa's so- 
ciety very agreeable and intellectually healthy. 
She was the leading soprano singer in the Kirtland 
Congregational Church and the leading Sabbath- 
school teacher; she could get up a celebration at 
the Kirtland Seminary; she could bring the sing- 
ers together for a musicale at Uncle Coe's, with 
whom she was a great favorite. His conversations 
with her were as with his equal in mental force. 
No one could talk gossip in her presence; she 
would deftly turn the conversation. Nor could 
any one peaceably lavish compliments upon her, 



136 REMINISCENCES. 

though she confessed she was extremely eager for 
the good opinion of all the good. She sometimes 
remarked that she was afraid that she appeared 
too forward in her endeavors to do good, and that 
she would gladly follow, as she frequently did, 
when any one else would lead. 

Now, could a little sickly mortal, paralyzed with 
the dyspepsia, dependent upon relatives and 
friends for a subsistence; could such a victim of 
sickness, of poverty, with no prospect, in the esti- 
mation of his friends, look on such a personality 
with any other feelings or expectations than re- 
spect and admiration? Besides, she was a great 
favorite in Akron, Ohio, where she spent the most 
of two years, I heard, through her friends, that 
she had had several offers from the best young 
men of that thriving town. She has told me inci- 
dentally of these young men, of her growing at- 
tachment for one of them ; but when he expressed 
in her presence, not a disavowal of religious belief, 
but a commonplace sneer at some church usage, 
which she considered scriptural and vital, she can- 
didly informed him that her views and his of re- 
ligion and religious sanctities were so utterly at 
variance that she could not get her own consent 
to any further association than that of the courte- 
sies of members of the same young society. He 
made every necessary and possible apology and 
explanation, but she could not condone any dis- 
respect for that which was of all things the most 
sacred to her. 



MELISSA AND I. 1 3/ 

Melissa found her patience and Christian charity 
most tried in the care of an aunt in Akron. For 
many months before this aunt's death Melissa 
took the place of a nurse. Her exactions in her 
low condition were often most trying, but Melissa 
waited upon her with the greatest sweetness and 
patience, notwithstanding the demands and com- 
plaints of the declining woman. After her aunt's 
death, she taught in Middleburg for a season, at 
the same time boarding in Akron at a cousin's. 
While there she was much sought after as a lead- 
ing soprano singer in. all the churches. I think 
the Episcopal Church offered her a salary, which 
she did not accept, but continued her services in 
the Congregational Church, of which she was a 
member. These circumstances occurred in the 
years 1838, '39 and '40. 

When I returned from Boonville, Ind., where I 
had passed a year and a half, arriving at Akron 
on horseback on my way to Kirtland, and coming 
up the street toward our cousin's residence, the 
first person that I saw was Melissa, looking out of 
a chamber-window, for any other object than what 
she saw! Catherine Smith, another cousin, was 
Avith her; she was not expecting me, though she 
had recently come from Boonville. Their wel- 
come was characteristic. Catherine: "Why, Al- 
fred Holbrook, I should as soon have expected to 
see an angel from heaven as you. How did you 
get here?" Melissa ran down to meet me at the 
door, and with every proper demonstration led 



138 REMINISCENCES. 

me into the house, and drew out my story. 
"Why did you leave Boonville ? How long have 
you been on the road ? How did you think you 
could ride so far in such poor health ? Where are 
you going now? You will stay with us to re- 
cuperate? You are certainly a great deal better 
than when you left Kirtland. Catherine has told 
nie how miserable you were in Boonville, how 
hard you tried to do something to support your- 
self; how many times you broke down, seemingly 
worse than ever." To all these interrogations and 
exclamations, I made, of course, fitting replies. 
But when I told her of a conversation that I over- 
heard between Catherine and Aunt Mary, whose 
guest I was, and had been for three years, she 
burst out, "What a plucky fellow." The con- 
versation that I overheard, and which I related in 
the presence of Cousin Catherine, was substanti- 
ally as follows : 

I had been out surveying for Mr. Spelman, a 
couple of days. The line between his farm and that 
of Mr. Clutter, an original settler, had become ob- 
literated. Mr. Spelman, one of our Yankee col- 
onists, was convinced that the dividing fence was . 
far within and upon his land, as originally laid out 
by the United States surveyors. Mr. Clutter 
would listen to nothing of the kind. At last, how- 
ever, he agreed to have the line run, and said, if 
it was not where the fence was, he would pay the 
expense, but if it were, Mr. Spelman should foot 
the bill. It was necessary to go back some five 



MELISSA AND I. 1 39 

miles to find a reliable corner. From this corner 
we all started, a company of a dozen men, as 
several others were interested in this boundary 
line. Pursuing my way carefully with my com- 
pass, it was soon discovered that Mr. Clutter was 
badly mistaken in the location of the fence. As 
we entered his farm, the line that I was following 
with the compass, was several rods within Clut- 
ter's field, as bounded by the fence. Mr. Clut- 
ter was very much excited, and swore that he 
would not give up five or ten acres of his best 
land, even though he had agreed to abide by my 
work as surveyor. I had previously gone to the 
county records, and obtained a copy of the plat 
of the line, and a description of the corner. It 
was originally marked by three trees, a black wal- 
nut, two feet in diameter, a sassafras, twelve inches, 
and a red oak, eighteen inches in diameter. On 
reaching the corner with my chain, and taking out 
my notes for the description of the corner, only 
one tree was within many feet of my corner, as 
determined by the survey, that was a red oak, in 
the right direction, and at the right distance, but 
more than three feet in diameter. I asked Mr. 
Spelman to cut into this tree. Mr. Clutter was 
wild with rage, declaring he would prosecute us 
for trespass, etc. Mr. Spelman very calmly cut 
away for a while, then handed the axe to another 
man interested as he was in this line. At length, 
after cutting nearly to the heart of the tree, the 
original blaze was found, and the marks agreeing 



140 REMINISCENCES. 

with the record. A general hurrah was raised, 
especially by those on the winning side. Mr. 
Clutter and others who were the losers, were glum 
enough, but gave up the fight. I had come out 
within four inches of the corner, as laid down in 
the record. He paid me for my work as he had 
agreed; Mr. Spelman gave me double the amount. 
It was after such a two-days' work, walking 
through woods and underbrush, that I found my- 
self prostrated, and glad to lie abed. And now the 
conversation that I overheard as I lay in an adjoin- 
ing room, with the door ajar: 

Catherine. — " Alfred is down again worse than 
ever. I am afraid he will not live long." 

Aiott Mary. — "It is such a pity, he is so smart and 
so ambitious. This is the twentieth time, I be- 
lieve, he has overworked and made himself sick." 

Catherine. — "I should think he would learn to 
hold himself, and not break himself down so often. " 

Aunt Alary. — Why, he seems to be so anxious 
to earn something to support himself, and not be 
a burden on anybody. He needn't feel that he is 
a burden to us ; we would rather have him with us 
than not. His influence with the children is 
worth a great deal ; I should hate to have him 
leave us, but I am afraid he will not live long ; 
every time he breaks down, he is worse, and it 
takes him longer to get up again." This was as 
much as I could stand. I rose from the bed, opened 
the door, and said: "Aunt Mary, I am much 
obliged for your sympathy. I've heard all you and 



MELISSA AND I. I4I 

Cousin Catherine have said, and I am thankful for 
all your patience and kindness ; but I am not going 
to be gotten rid of so easily as you seem to im- 
agine ; I expect to live a long time yet, and I 
hope some time or other to be able to repay you 
or your children for all you are doing for me. 
Why, I may have the privilege of supporting you 
in your old age, who knows ? 

Aunt Mary. — "Why, Alfred, that is just like 
you, I am sorry you overheard us, but you are the 
most hopeful being I ever saw." 

Alfred. — "Well, Aunt, faith, hope and charity 
are sisters ; I have the faith and hope, and you 
have the charity, the greatest of them all. You 
are to me the very personification and incarnation 
of patience, fortitude and goodness." Years 
after, when Aunt Mary had become a widow, had 
lost all her property, and was dependent on a son- 
in-law, I had the privilege of contributing for 
several years to her support, though I never as- 
sumed it entirely. Thus, in a small measure, my 
my faith and hope, dominant in all my helplessness, 
brought compensation for Aunt Mary's charity, 
and I enjoyed the privilege thankfully. Melissa 
took it on herself to convey to Aunt Mary, from 
time to time, our united offering. She did it in 
her own sweet way. 

Remaining a few days in Akron, I proceeded to 
Kirtland, and was welcomed again by Uncle and 
Aunt Coe — she was my father's sister, Melissa 
"being released from her duties in Akron, returned 



142 REMINISCENCES. 

also to her home in Kirtland. Mehssa and I were 
much together that summer, talking, reading, rid- 
ing, visiting. Whether she ever thought I would 
be anybody's husband, or not, I do not know; I 
never asked her. One thing I do know, that our 
cousinly intercourse contributed much to the im- 
provement of my health and spirits. There were 
few days that we were not together most of the time. 
In my growing acquaintance with her, she re- 
vealed a wide intelligence, a true Christian culture, 
a familiarity with all the standard literature of the 
time, an ambition to do something and be some- 
thing far beyond the plodding of other good and 
amiable women. Her highly cultivated musical 
taste, and her exquisite execution of sacred music, 
added much to her personal attractions and her 
sweet and winning ways. In all these respects, 
and in every other, she came nearer to my ideal 
than any one that I had known before. But what 
was I ? A little, hopeless and helpless invalid. 
She afterward quoted a reply to one of her letters, 
in which, according to her, I said: "Your kind 
words and cousinly affection, so sweetly expressed, 
brought up all the blood in my body, to make, 
if possible, a blush, in revealing to myself how 
dear you are to me." 

During the summer, I had visited Berea, ex- 
pecting to meet my father there. He was in New 
York, engaged in introducing the new Berea grind- 
stones to the national market, and selling stock of 
the proposed Lyceum village. 



MELISSA AND I. 143 

I found John Baldwin deeply engaged in con- 
structing lathes, and adapting them to his water- 
power on Rocky River and on Mill Creek. He 
narrated the means by which father had discovered 
the value of the Berea grit, and the prospect thus 
of paying off debts contracted in. the support of 
the religious community which they had suc- 
ceeded in drawing together, a large part of whom, 
according to Baldwin, were ' ' too religious for any 
earthly use, and continued so as long as bread and 
butter were furnished to their faith and devotion, 
by his works and credit." 

A few only of these remained — those too sick 
or too worthless to get away. They obtained very 
meager supplies from Baldwin, and erelong, they 
had all disappeared, finding it just as easy to work 
for a living elsewhere as at Berea. 

I was much interested in Baldwin, and in his 
peculiar personal appearance and habits, his sacri- 
fices to what he considered a scriptural plan for a 
Christian living; and I never discovered that he 
changed his views, of having all things in com- 
mon, though he did confess that they ought to 
have had more vigorous tests in examining those 
whom they admitted to the privileges and immu- 
nities of the community. At Baldwin's solicita- 
tion, I took up my residence in Berea, still 
expecting father to join me. Not feeling able to 
teach six hours per day, I agreed to commence a 
school for the children of Berea, at ;^ 15.00 per 
month, teaching three hours daily. 



144 REMINISCENCES. 

My school began with two pupils in the forenoon^ 
with an increase of one in the afternoon. In the 
course of two weeks, the attendance was fifteen, 
all the children of Methodist families. 

The school-room was in a rickety, unfinished, 
cheerless building. It had been used'for the offices 
and meetings of the community, now disbanded. 
Soon the influx of laborers and families, drawn by 
the new industry, made it necessary to put up a 
new building for the school. It was of two stories, 
the lower being used for a store. The upper 
story was properly furnished with seats, desks and 
apparatus, at Mr. Baldwin's expense. I began 
my second term in the new building with thirty- 
five pupils. As yet, I dared teach but three hours 
per day. Of course, help was needed, and brother 
Baldwin agreed to pay an assistant ^$25 a month, 
leaving the selection to me. 

I wrote to Melissa, requesting her to join me in 
the Berea School, stating the conditions. I was 
receiving ;^i5 a month for half time, she would be 
paid $2$ per month for full time. 

The school filled up rapidly. We organized 
classes in the higher branches, including the 
higher mathematics and Latin. 

In order to receive Melissa as a pupil in Latin, 
I taught the fourth hour, the recitation being be- 
fore breakfast. She had studied Latin somewhat 
before, but encouraged me by affirming, after a 
few recitations, that all the time and effort she 
had spent on Latin were worse than wasted. 



MELISSA AND I. 145 

adding, "It was the only study that I ever at- 
tempted that I did not enjoy ; I had only learned 
to hate Latin ; but the way you manage the sub- 
ject and the pupils is a revelation to me. There 
is no study that I ever enjoyed so much." In 
fact, she rose at four o'clock to get out her Latin 
lessons. It is hardly necessary to say that I stud- 
ied in the same room with her. I was reading 
Bourdon's Algebra (a new book to me), and keep- 
ing ahead of my class in that subject. 

Now my readers will naturally incline to the 
opinion that I was in love with this splendid 
cousin. Well, perhaps so ; but my health was so 
precarious, my animal vigor so low, my blood so 
thin, that love must have been of an ethereal mold 
— a spiritual afflatus, far removed from what ordi- 
narily passes under that name. Melissa had,, 
from the first renewal of my acquaintance with her 
in Ohio, been an object of deep interest, of in- 
creasing affection ; but no idea of marriage had 
ever intervened as desirable or possible with me, 
and I am equally sure not with her. 

But, as we lived in so close relations in our 
daily work, in our studies, in our mutual confi- 
dences, she became, as it were, a part of my daily 
life, and the greater part of my enjoyment. 

In the course of my work, in trying to meet 
the necessary demands of my pupils, who had 
commenced coming from abroad, I had begun 
teaching six hours a day. My health was misera- 
ble ; dyspepsia, with all its train, preyed upon my 
lO 



146 REMINISCENCES. 

energies and embittered my physical existence. 
Melissa was accustomed to prepare my food. For 
a considerable time it was no more than a thin 
piece of corn bread, about three inches square, at 
each meal. 

Under such circumstances, it is now unaccount- 
able to me how I could have worked as well as I 
did, and have brought a continually increasing 
attendance from parts near and remote ; for animal 
vigor, as well as a cheerful spirit, is essential, or- 
dinarily, to any successful teaching. 

Among those who came from abroad were sev- 
eral Quaker students from Marlboro, Ohio: the 
Wilemans, Abram and Hannah; Amos Walton, 
Eugene Pierce, Augusta Pratt and others. They 
were all earnest students, devoted friends, and are 
all remembered for their thousand kindnesses, 
both in Berea and afterward in Marlboro, with the 
warmest feelings of gratitude and affection. I se- 
cured the aid of these friends at different times in 
managing my classes, or other exercises, when I 
was too much exhausted to go on with my work. 
(It was through the solicitation of these same 
friends that I subsequently went to Marlboro). 
Keeping myself in an exhausted condition, by 
trying to do the full work of a teacher, with not 
one-fifth the strength that health would have 
given, it is a marvel now how it was done. Un- 
doubtedly Melissa's sympathy, care and encour- 
agement may account for it in some measure ; but 
divine aid was daily, hourly sought, and, as I have 



MELISSA AND I. 14/ 

sufficient reason to know, were vouchsafed. At 
length I was seized with a severe form of dysen- 
tery. For a day or two the disease continued 
and seemed to grow worse; whatever Httle blood 
I had in me was fast flowing away. A physician 
was called by my anxious friends. He prescribed 
rhubarb powders, as he called them ; what else I 
do not know; but they had little effect, unless to 
increase the malady. I was lifted frequently off 
and on the bed; but, as I was placed back, per- 
haps for the fiftieth time, I found that I had no 
vitality left; I could hardly move a limb or bend a 
finger. I concluded death was near. I refused 
the medicine I had been taking every fifteen min_ 
utes when awake. Abram Wileman was watch, 
ing with me. When I refused to take the powders, 
he urged them as my only hope; I still refused; I 
could not talk. He left the room in alarm — it was 
near midnight — and aroused the inmates of the 
house. They all came in and thought I was de- 
lirious; the doctor was sent for in great haste. 
He soon came, and feeling my pulse, assured me 
that, unless I took the powders, gangrene would 
speedily commence in my bowels, and that would 
be fatal. I whispered, "Let me die in peace." 
He gave me up, and told my friends that I could 
hardly hold out till morning. 

When thus I ceased to be disturbed externally 
by the watchers and internally by the medicine, 
I became easier and fell asleep. Nothing passed 
my lips for three days; then I took a glass o^ 



148 REMINISCENCES. 

water, then another. On the fifth day I walked 
across the room and ate a httle rice which MeHssa 
had prepared for me. In another five days I was 
in charge of my classes — a wonder to my friends 
and an astonishment to myself. In my work 
I recovered speedily, and found myself gaining 
flesh, in consequence of restored digestion; and if 
there was ever anything in me besides will-power 
and a good purpose, it was when I discovered 
that I weighed 120 pounds — a phenomenon never 
occurring before or since in my career. Now 
psychical devotion for my cousin was doubtless 
reinforced by physical energy. I was another be- 
ing in my feelings, in my work, in my conversa- 
tion, and especially in my interest in my cousin. 
Could it be supposed that such a man as I would 
have dared to think of — well, of addressing such a 
woman as I well knew Melissa to be! The ven- 
ture was made with many a doubt and more fear. 
I was accepted. I hardly believed that she could 
love me. I had thought she had watched over me 
and taken care of me in my long good-for-nothing- 
ness, as I had known her to do for others, out of 
the natural goodness of heart, or from pure Chris- 
tian benevolence ; but that she loved me was more 
than I dared to hope. In talking over the matter, 
when we had come to an understanding, she assured 
me that she had long before made up her mind 
that, if she could not marry her cousin Alfred, 
she would never marry anybody else; she would 
live for him, and for him alone. My protestations 



MELISSA AND I. I49 

were, doubtless, none the less sincere and fervent. 

Our engagement being known, we were the 
subjects of much more interest than before, per- 
haps. Melissa was a great favorite with all the 
good people of Berea, as she had been everywhere 
else. She was a devoted church and Sabbath- 
school worker; she was ready in every case of 
sickness and bereavement ; she was a kind of om- 
nipresence, as she always was wherever sorrow 
called for sympathy, sickness for watching, or dis- 
tress for relief. 

We were ill-prepared for married life, in any 
other sense than that I needed a helpmeet, just 
such a good angel as Melissa had proven herself 
to be. I had saved nothing from my meager in- 
come, always giving to the Church and other 
benevolences more than I had earned. In looking 
over my finances, I found that, if my debts were 
paid, I should then be ^20 in debt; but, however, 
Melissa was not exactly in the same condition, for 
she had, in her own right and at her control, about 
$\2 the day that we were married. In fact, I had 
to take four dollars from her funds to pay our mar- 
riage fee. The minister. Uncle Coe, handed the 
money back immediately to her, though he had 
come forty miles to marry us at his own expense. 

Melissa, at this time about twenty-four years of 
age, was to me a most lovely woman. Her height 
was just about the same as mine (she had a way 
of making herself shorter when we stood together) ; 
her figure was lithe and graceful; her motions 



150 REMINISCENCES. 

were light, easy and rapid ; her features were reg- 
ular and classic; her eyes were blue, gentle and 
winning; her expression was ordinarily sedate and 
self-possessed: when interested or excited, glowing 
with such emotion or fancy as possessed her at 
the moment. In her conversational ability she 
was far superior to most intelligent society women ; 
her powers of description, narrative and mimicry 
were seldom equaled; her vocabulary was exten- 
sive and always equal to the occasion ; her selec- 
tion of words was spontaneously refined and 
exquisite ; her sympathy with all who came near 
her, and her interest in their well-being, were an un- 
bounded and perpetual flow, always engaging and 
winning by their sincerity and sweetness. Though 
never aggressive in society, she was always ac- 
cepted as a leading spirit in every good enterprise; 
her counsel was always sought and her adminis- 
trative ability always recognized. In after life her 
efforts in public speaking, especially in addressing- 
our large body of students, were impressive, 
sometimes affecting, and were always sought for; 
and when her person graced our rostrum, were 
always spoken of with appreciation and admira- 
tion. Her work in private with students, whether 
sick or well, was always kindly, thankfully re- 
ceived. Her ministrations to the sick, bereaved 
and desolate, especially of the poor, can but be 
remembered by hundreds with benedictions on 
her memory. 

But her full power to yield blessings and happi- 



MELISSA AND I. I5I 

ness are only known to her servants, her children 
and her husband. No devotion could be more 
unselfish; no sacrifice more exhausting; no influ- 
ence more pure ; no affection could be more sweet, 
warm, charming, than that bestowed, as an ever- 
flowing stream, upon the special objects — her 
home-ties and duties. She always declared if there 
were any excellencies in her character and conduct, 
they were all of grace, and all the result of her trust 
in the love and mercy of her Redeemer. "I feel 
that I ought to do what little I can for him in his 
creatures, who has done so much for me," was her 
not infrequent expression. 

I have said that, being cousins, there was, or 
seemed to be, a very general disposition among 
our friends to question the propriety of our mar- 
riage. We, of course, talked the matter over, and 
each came to the conclusion that we were de- 
signed for each other, and that this one match had 
been made in heaven; at any rate neither of us 
would be worth much without the other. This 
was surely true so far as I was concerned. 

While I do not by any means advise cousins to 
marry, I never regretted the transaction ; but, on 
the other hand, feel now as I always felt, that 
Melissa was the one woman of all others that the 
good Lord had made, trained and fully endowed 
with all the necessary forces and graces to com- 
pensate for my deficiencies — to stimulate, beautify 
and sanctify my life. I have never felt otherwise. 

After boarding a week or two, we set up house- 



152 REMINISCENCES. 

keeping in the rooms that we had ocqupied before 
marriage, save that they were one less in number. 
We were adding three rooms to the house Brother 
Baldwin had given us. Our outfit for housekeep- 
ing was, as nearly as I can remember, an air-tight 
stove, three chairs (one a rocker), a deal table, 
washstand, bowl and ewer, a bedstead and bed- 
ding, a looking-glass, all borrowed; also three 
plates, two bowls, three knives and forks, three 
spoons, three larger dishes, two pitchers, a tin 
pan, two tin cups, obtained on credit from the 
store under our schoolroom. We were married 
on Sabbath, so we lost no time from our regular 
school work. Of one thing I am confident, that 
never young couple began life more thankfully; 
with less anxiety as to the future, or with more 
entire confidence in each other. We had tried 
each other, and each had seen the other tried as 
no others had been, at least, within our know- 
ledge. 

When in after years Melissa was alluding to one 
of several offers she had refused, and stating the 
reason why, I asked: "Then why didn't you re- 
fuse me? I wasn't the hundredth part as good a 
catch as any of those fellows. They are all now 
rich and getting richer." She replied: "Well, 
now, wouldn't you like to know? I won't tell 
you ; but I will say that I never found a man be- 
fore whom I dared to trust with my destiny and 
happiness." We commenced family worship, al- 
ternating daily in leading the worship — a practice 



MELISSA AND I. 153 

which we continued as long as I felt it prudent to 
ask her: "Mother, will you pray with us?" Her 
prayers were always an inspiration to me, as her 
■presence was joy and peace. It is chiefly through 
her gentle, kindly, motherly influence that my 
children are a great help and comfort to me, and, 
as I can thankfully and truly feel, a blessing to 
the world. 

When Brother Clayton came among us as pas- 
tor of our M. E. Church, and became acquainted 
with our school work in all its variety, extent and 
' ' power for good, " as he expressed it, he said tome 
one day, "This is all a mystery, how such an in- 
stitution could have grown up here, with no support 
from any Church ; with no endowment or appro- 
priation from the State; but when I became ac- 
quainted with your praying wife, and discovered 
her power with the Source of all power, the mys- 
tery was explained." The life of every mother is 
one of continued sacrifice at the best, but that of 
Melissa, above all others, in that in the infancy 
and childhood of all our children, she spared no 
effort or self-denial to leave me free for my school 
work. She felt that my sleep must be disturbed 
as little as possible, in order that I could be at 
my best with my classes; and so of all other 
family cares and labors — they were assumed and 
carried with a devotion and martyrdom that few, 
even of mothers, can measure or understand. 

But not in her family only — for her husband 
and for her children — were her powers of endur- 



154 REMINISCENCES. • 

ance and of chanty taxed ; until the last five years 
of her life she was the matron of the institution, 
having a motherly care over all the young ladies 
in attendance, and personally watching with the' 
sick or providing them with nurses and every at- 
tention possible for their well-being. Indeed her 
husband and children feel that it was this extra- 
ordinary exertion, and these continued and ex- 
hausting efforts for sick students, that brought her 
to her grave many years sooner than would other- 
wise have been the case. 

Her sympathy for the sick was not confined to 
the school, but had become a proverb in Lebanon: 
"The only way to have a call from Mrs. Holbrook 
is for some one in the house to get sick, then she 
will come without being invited or sent for." 

In many a financial extremity, when she would, 
as it were, instinctively divine the difficulty, the 
consolation and support offered was, "Well, hus- 
band, I can do nothing but pray for you ; but if I 
am weak, my Lord is mighty, and he will de- 
liver you; I know he will." 

It was Melissa that suggested and initiated the 
daily students' prayer-meeting. It was a matter 
of unceasing interest to her, and she not infre- 
quently gave it her presence and her counsels, 
which the students were ever most eager to re- 
ceive and to follow. 

It was her suggestion that a contribution be 
taken up semi-weekly for missionary purposes. 
The prayer-meeting made her the almoner of these 



MELISSA AND I. 1 55 

funds SO raised. Seldqm less than fifty dollars a 
year passed through her hands, for which she' al- 
ways presented her vouchers to the committee 
appointed by the prayer-meeting to record them. 

Melissa was a stern patriot. She sent her two 
oldest boys into the army at the first call for 
75,000, the oldest then only seventeen. The 
third was sent two years afterward, he being then 
only fifteen. She kept up constant communica- 
tion with her boys, her daily and constant prayers 
following them. While she felt her country's 
need, she had, more than most mothers, a confi- 
dence that her sons would act a brave and honor- 
able part in every time of danger and of trial. She 
treasured to her death their letters from all parts 
of the South where their country's emergencies 
took them. There was scarcely an important 
battle. East or West, in which one of them was not 
present and engaged. 

They all returned in due time, without a wound 
or a scratch, though the oldest had a ball-hole 
through his coat. The youngest, John, went 
round with Sherman in his march to the sea. In 
his first experience he was taken prisoner at Har- 
per's Ferry, but immediately paroled ; so that 
none of the three suffered the terrible fate of the 
thousands who were starved in the Southern 
prisons. 

On one occasion during the war, when a North- 
ern man had come from the rebel army, in which 
he had enlisted, and had been received by his rela- 



156 REMINISCENCES. 

tives in Lebanon, though the general opinion was 
that he was really a spy, or a Southern emissary 
of some kind, Melissa declared that she would 
not have such a man in her house. "But," 
said I, "be careful, wife; perhaps your brothers 
(she had two brothers in Tennessee, extensive land 
and slave-owners) will come to see us, and you 
don't know but that they are both rebels. " " They 
are no rebels; but if they are, they needn't come 
here; I don't want to see them." The Northern 
lines having soon after passed Ripley, Tenn. , where 
these brothers were living, one of them knocked 
at our door one day. Melissa went to the door. 
"Why, Josiah, is that you? Are you a Union 
man?" not offering her hand. He demurred some- 
what at such an unexpected reception from his 
gentle sister, and replied: "Well, what if I'm 
not?" "Then I don't want any Northern rebels 
in my house — not even my brother." "Well, 
I'm all right, sister. I have escaped the Southern 
service only at the risk of my life a hundred 
times." "Come in. I am so glad to see you. I 
knew you and John would both prove true men." 
Her personal animosity to rebels was confined 
to Northern men, however. We had, all during 
the war, more or less Southern students in school, 
many of whom were outspoken rebels. They re- 
ceived just as much care and sympathy in sick- 
ness, and, perhaps, more consideration, generally, 
than Northern students. She sometimes re- 
marked: " If I had been born and educated in 



MELISSA AND I. I 5/ 

the South, doubtless I should have been among 
the bitterest of the rebels." 

One of our teachers, Mrs. Roberts, was a South- 
ern lady. She had three brothers in the Southern 
army and four brothers, or brothers-in-law, in the 
Federal ranks. 

When the war closed, or rather, when Rich- 
mond was taken, one of her brothers, who had 
been a body-guard to Jeff. Davis, made his ap- 
pearance at our house, where she was boarding. 
She did not hesitate to inform us who he was, 
where he had come from and all other particulars. 
We received him, but felt it prudent to conceal 
him, or at least, not to let it be known who he 
was. He remained with us three days, and was 
safely housed and hospitably entertained. 

I relate this circumstance to show that Melissa's 
charity was of no narrow quality. It was, on the 
other hand, of the most considerate and far-reach- 
ing character, winning the confidence of her coun- 
try's foes even. 

She did not go as far as one mother that I heard 
make a short speech during the war. Said she: 
"I have sent seven sons into the army; my only 
regret is that I haven't seven more to send with 
them." 

But Melissa gave her sons prayerfully and 
thankfully, saying, as one after another left us, "I 
may never see this boy again ; he is a free gift to 
my country. No sacrifice is too dear for my 
country's liberties." 



158 REMINISCENCES. 

Her boys all returned, and not one of them was 
charged with dishonorable conduct, that she or I 
ever heard of, during the war, though they, one or 
the other, were in all the great battles of the Rebel- 
lion and altogether they were in the service nine 
years. Were their mother's prayers their panoply ? 

Melissa's correspondence was extensive, and 
continued to within a few weeks of her death. It 
was chiefly, beyond that with her own immediate 
relatives, confined to letters of sympathy and con- 
dolence, or to special cases when she thought a 
word of counsel and encouragement would be 
well received and do good. No case was so hard 
and hopeless among the young mpn of Lebanon 
but that she would venture a letter of kindness, 
admonition and encouragement; and often I have 
read letters from such "hard cases" — replies to 
hers — which evidenced the fact that no man can 
be" so debased but that there is humanity in him 
that can be reached. 

Letters from the leading thinkers of the times 
are found in her desk in reply to something 
from her, though it wa^ her practice in all such 
cases to state that she dio not expect a reply; she 
only wished to give her word of approval " to the 
manly course," "the outspoken sentiment so 
needed by the times." The most of such letters 
were written without the knowledge of her hus- 
band, but the returns always came to my knowl- 
edge and appreciation. Truly, "she did what 
she could." Her last words to her husband were. 



MELISSA AND I, 1 59 

*' Husband, I shall be at home before to-morrow." 
Her earthly home had been made, by her gentle 
presence, her sweet influence,* unswerving integ- 
rity, her loving counsel, her affectionate ministra- 
tions, her superhuman devotion to the comfort 
and happiness of her husband, children and ser- 
vants, as near a heaven as is ever enjoyed on 
earth. Her heavenly home, doubtless, will be the 
theater of larger and sweeter activities. 

The words of King Lemuel were never more 
fitting: "Her children arise up and call her 
blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. 
Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou 
excellest them all." 



CHAPTER IX. 



A REMINISCENCE IN BEREA. 

In 1847, ^s near as I can remember, the first 
Institutes were held in Ohio. One was conducted 
by Marcellus Cowdry and Horace Benton in Nor- 
walk ; another by Thomas W. Harvey in Chardon, 
and a third in Berea by myself. All were held in 
the month of August. The new brick building 
having just been completed, with a chapel to 
hold 300, it was a fitting opportunity, as I 
conceived, to initiate these new accommoda- 
tions with a Teachers' Institute. I expected to 
conduct most of the exercises myself, but had 
also engaged Professor Hamilton L. Smith, of 
Cleveland, and my uncle, Truman Coe, of Kirt- 
land, to assist me in lecturing on natural sciences. 

Professor Smith had already acquired a reputa- 
tion by lecturing, and also by having written a 
volume, and was, as I supposed, the very man I 
needed to carry through a course of lectures on 
electricity and mechanics. He commenced his 
course in due time, and such was the profundity 
and erudition displayed in his first lecture, that no- 
body but Uncle Coe and myself were able to un- 
(160) 



A REMINISCENCE IN BEREA. l6l 

derstand or be interested in his remarks. The 
rest of his audience were teachers who were yet 
scarcely famihar with the most simple and funda- 
mental principles of these departments of science. 
At the close of the lecture, I congratulated the 
professor upon the originality and profundity of 
his presentation of his subject, but tried to apprize 
him, as well as I was able, of the fact that such a 
course of lectures would be utterly useless to 
those whom he was employed to instruct. He 
seemed to realize the fact as I presented it; but, 
as his entire line of procedure had been prepared 
for a body of learned and practical scientists, his 
second lecture was not unlike his first, but rather 
more recondite and far-reaching. I found I had 
an elephant on my hands, and was much relieved 
when he received word of sickness in his family 
and begged to be excused from the remaining lec- 
tures of his course. This procedure only illus- 
trated to me the better a fact which I had long 
dwelt upon, that erudition is very likely to stand 
in the way of successful elementary teaching. The 
presentation of rare and peculiar phenomena, with 
their explanations, and illustrations, is but a 
waste of time for those who are not familiar with 
first principles. By this I do not intend to say 
that a man or woman can ever know too much to 
teach any class of pupils on any subject, even A, 
B, C ; but it is rather difficult for those who have 
been engaged for years after they have passed the 

fundamental principles, and have spent time, 
1 1 



l62 REMINISCENCES. 

money and labor in original investigation, to come 
back again to the simple and general principles of 
a science ;( in other words, adaptation to the class 
of pupils and to tl>e circumstances is one of the es- 
sential characteristics of a wide-awake and success- 
ful teacher,' 

Uncle Coe and I followed the plan of instruction 
I had laid out and advertised. Our Institute was 
a great success, and aided very much in bringing 
the school into repute and filling up our accom- 
modations next year. 

While Uncle Coe was with me, spending these 
two or three weeks, his brother, Daniel Coe, came 
from New England — from the old homestead 
which Truman, the younger brother, had sold to 
him when he left Derby — to visit his brother in 
Kirtland. Not finding him in Kirtland, he came 
to Berea, where we, Melissa and I, made arrange- 
ments to entertain him, as well as we were able, 
in our own family. Before I go further with my 
story, it will be necessary to go back three or four 
years and narrate a circumstance connected with 
the Coe family. Uncle Truman's oldest sou, 
Milton, had, after pursuing a college course, gone 
to Derby, expecting to spend the winter in his 
uncle's family, and, if possible, to obtain business. 
He had hoped that, if he could do nothing better, 
he could obtain a school and teach in Derby, or 
its vicinity, six months or more; but he had no 
other expectation than of making his headquarters 
at his uncle's home — the place which had formerly 



A REMINISCENCE IN BEREA. 163 

been his home. He arrived there Saturday, re- 
maining with them over Sabbath. On Monday 
morning his uncle informed him that he had se- 
cured a very comfortable and cheap boarding- 
place for him in the town, about half a mile distant. 
Milton hardly knew what to say or how to manage 
the matter. He had no means oi paying his 
board for any length of time, and from what his 
uncle said he found that he did not expect to pay 
it for him, so that he was compelled to go to 
other relatives until he could secure an income of 
some kind. His uncle, however, very kindly told 
him that whenever he felt disposed he would like 
to have him call and see him. It is hardly 
necessary to say that Milton never called at his 
uncle's after that. It was a different kind of hospi- 
tality from that which had always been exhibited in 
his Kirtland home toward all his father's and moth- 
er's relatives, and, indeed, to almost everybody 
else. 

Now, when Daniel Coe, who was a Methodist 
local preacher, found that he was to be entertained 
at my house for two or three weeks, he expressed 
his extreme reluctance to accept of such hospital- 
ity, and urged me very seriously and earnestly to 
accept of pay for his board, all of which, under 
the circumstances, was somewhat trying and 
somewhat amusing. After he had spent the night 
with me, however, he was invited by three differ- 
ent families to come and spend the entire time 
with them. He hardly knew what to do, or how 



164 REMINISCENCES. 

to explain it, or what interpretation to put upon 
it. It was so entirely different from anything that 
he had ever seen or experienced, or had ever prac- 
ticed himself. There was no end to his varied 
expressions of appreciation and amazement, that 
a perfect stranger should be made the object 
of such unbounded and unrecompensed hos- 
pitality. I relate this circumstance to illus- 
trate the difference between Eastern and Western 
hospitality, as I have witnessed and experi- 
enced both in different times and places, East 
and West. By this I do not intend to imply 
that all my friends and relatives in the East are 
of the character of Daniel Coe. On the other 
hand, they are as boundless and unremitting in 
their attentions to their Western cousins as could 
possibly be desired, and are most thoroughly ap- 
preciated; nor do I intend to say that all Western 
people are lavish, by any means, in their gifts and 
graces, in entertaining either friends or strangers. 
So far, however, as Melissa and I were concerned, 
we had both of us from childhood and youth been 
too often the recipients of this kind of unpaid 
kindness, not to feel it a privilege at all times to 
entertain friends and strangers as best we were 
able. Melissa had a "Prophet's Chamber" in 
her house, always in readiness to entertain the 
preacher, the missionary, or the agent in any- 
good cause. 



CHAPTER X. 



SOME EXPERIENCES WITH JOHN BALDWIN. 

Mr. John Baldwin in 1839 had freed himself 
from a Methodist religious community in Berea, 
O. He had disengaged himself from his partners 
by assuming the financial responsibility of the 
community. In this community there had been a 
collection of several hundred people of deep re- 
ligious convictions, but of utter incapacity for busi- 
ness. Mr. Baldwin had become convinced that, 
whatever were his religious views in regard to hav- 
ing all things in common, it was impracticable 
with such a class of men and women as had col- 
lected there. Hundreds of acres of valuable land, 
which he had devoted to the use of the community, 
had proved insufficient to furnish food even, and 
in order to save the company from bankruptcy, 
he had found it necessary to assume all the debts 
and liabilities of those who had been looking to 
h^im for support. 

/ About this time, through H. O. Sheldon, he be- 
Icame acquainted with my father's plan of a Lyceum 
village, and invited him to Berea to establish his 
Lyceum village in that place. Burdened with debt 
(165) 



l66 REMINISCENCES. 

as he was, Mr. Baldwin, still feeling that he should 
use himself and his property for a higher end than 
the mere accumulation of wealth, thought my 
father's plan of a Lyceum village would be feasi- 
ble and desirable. On the arrival of my father at 
Berea, from New York City, the first work in hand 
was to lay out the proposed Lyceum village, in 
streets and squares, on the property Mr. Baldwin 
had used for the community. After a forenoon 
had been spent in running lines with the compass, 
and the party had partaken of dinner, father sug- 
gested to Mr. Baldwin, since they had been de- 
layed in their work by a dull axe, in sharpening 
the corner stakes, that they should go out and 
grind the axe. Mr. Baldwin proposed to turn the 
grindstone while father held the axe. Grinding 
and talking for some little time father failed to look 
at the axe. In turning it over to examine it, he 
was astonished to find what an amount of steel 
had been ground away. Said he : " Brother Bald- 
win, where did you get this grindstone ?" " Down 
in the creek below here." "In the creek be- 
low here ?" "Yes, the whole country is based 
on this kind of grit." " Is that so ? You have a 
fortune more substantial than the Bank of England- 
underlying your possessions." This was the dis- 
covery of the famous Berea grindstone grit. Mr. 
Baldwin immediately proceeded to rig lathes, ap- 
ply water-power, and turned out grindstones by 
the hundred. My father had always been accus- 
tomed to the blue-grit of Nova Scotia for grind- 



SOME EXPERIENCES WITH JOHN BALDWIN. 1 6/ 

Stones. He affirmed that this grit was as much 
sharper than the bkie-grit of Nova Scotia, as that 
was sharper than any common bowlder by the 
roadside. A market was at once opened in New 
York for the Berea grindstones. They displaced all 
others, and I suppose millions have been realized 
from that quarry, a large proportion of which Mr. 
Baldwin gave the institution of which he was the 
founder. 

After paying off the debts of the community, 
Mr. Baldwin went into various expenditures for 
the benefit of education, among which was the 
erection of a large three-story building for the ac- 
commodation of the school which I had begun 
with two pupils, and of which I was still in charge. 
It had by this time increased to one hundred and 
fifty pupils. 

/ Mr. Baldwin persistently held to the theory that 
young men and women could support themselves 
at the s^mQ time that they were pursuing an edu- 
cation. ' Notwithstanding every pupil he tried to 
educate in this way cost him more or less out of 
pocket, yet he never gave up the idea that there 
might yet be found some who could support them- 
selves in this way. He furnished me every desired 
facility in building up a school. For example, on 
my wedding day he presented me with a. deed to a 
house and lot for my immediate occupancy. Being 
himself a devoted Christian, and earnest Meth- 
odist, he concluded to make the school a Meth- 
odist Institution, and place it under Conference 



l68 REMINISCENCES. 

management. He had some difficulty in obtaining 
acceptance of the property, which has since proved 
to be worth not less than half a million of dollars. 
The Conference consented, at last, to receive the 
property, provided , Brother Baldwin would raise 
two thousand dollars for apparatus and other facil- 
ties for the Conference School. He complied 
with the condition and paid the money himself. 

When this school, which I had originated and 
built up, with Brother Baldwin's financial help, 
had passed into the hands of the Methodist Con- 
ference, I was urged to become a preacher, from 
the usage of having preachers at the head of 
Methodist institutions. I declined, saying that I 
was not a preacher, nor had the Lord called me to 
serve him in that manner. I was a teacher, and 
would serve the Conference in that capacity and in 
that only. The result was, that several preachers 
were placed over this Institution, among whom 
was Dr. Warner, afterward chaplain of the Ohio 
Penitentiary. He was a most eloquent preacher, 
an earnest Christian, a splendid worker, but no 
teacher. The students, in a measure, lost their 
respect for him in that capacity. He was perhaps 
incited by his friends to think that I was a party to 
his failure as Principal of the Institution. At the 
end of the year he resigned, and the Conference 
sent Rev. Wm. L. Harris to take the position. 

The circumstances of my re-election that year 
are interesting at least to me. Brother Baldwin 
took a very earnest part in it. It was said by the 



SOME EXPERIENCES WITH JOHN BALDWIN. 1 69 

friends of Dr. Warner that all the trouble between 
the School and Dr. Warner originated with me ; 
hence there was considerable effort, on the part of 
the preachers especially, to dislodge me. Adam 
Poe, who was our Presiding Elder, had been posted 
on all the difficulties in the school, and at the elec- 
tion by the Board of Trustees, eight of whom 
were preachers, and seven, laymen, it was thought 
that there could not be a majority secured for my 
re-election. Knowing the prejudices in the case, 
I went to Brother Baldwin and told him I was not 
a candidate for re-election. He wished me to per- 
mit my name to be submitted as a candidate. I 
told him I could only consent on two conditions. 
The one was, that I should have my salary se- 
cured, with an advance of one hundred dollars ; 
the other, that I should have the unanimous vote 
of the Board. **The first condition I will take 
care of myself, " said he; "the second condition 
is too hard, but I will see." Not being a member 
of the Conference, or of the Board, I was not 
present at the election of the several teachers, but 
as soon as the election had transpired. Brother 
Baldwin came to me somewhat elated, saying: 
"You are trapped, your conditions are met." 
*• How can that be?" said I. "I understood the 
preachers were all going to vote against me. He 
said: "I don't know how that was, but there are 
fifteen members of the Board, and there were four- 
teen white beans, and one black one, and we know 
the President voted. He was not authorized to do 



I/O REMINISCENCES. 

SO except in case of a tie. So there is no doubt 
of your conditions being met, you have received a 
unanimous vote." I repHed : "That being the 
case, I shall continue in the Baldwin Institute" 
(the name which was adopted). Brother Harris 
came on in September, and assumed the responsi- 
bility of the Principalship. I had heretofore, al- 
though nominally assistant, been Principal of the 
school, and had taken the chief responsibility in 
maintaining the order and discipline of the Institu- 
tion. Brother Harris insisted, although he was 
Principal, and received double the salary, that I 
should still continue in charge of the general study- 
room, thus burdening me with the responsibility 
of the government and order of the Institution. 
Brother Baldwin was absent in New York at the 
time Brother Harris assumed his po'sition, and I 
had not him to appeal to. I soon gave in my res- 
ignation and withdrew, having previously received 
a call to establish a school at Chardon. 

I went immediately there to complete arrange- 
ments for my removal. On my return, I met 
Brother Baldwin in Cleveland, on his way home 
from New York. Of course, I was compelled to 
inform him of the reason why I was not in school. 
I had made arrangements to move to Chardon to 
open a school there. He seemed very much af- 
fected, very much chagrined, and asked if it were 
not possible for me to remain in Berea. I told him 
it was impossible for me to work in slavery ; that 
Brother Harris had come there prejudiced against 



SOME EXPERIENCES WITH JOHN BALDWIN. I7I 

me, and that he and I could never work together. 
So I moved to Chardon and commenced my work 
there. 

I soon had an application for the purchase of 
one or both of my houses in Berea. I returned to 
Berea to complete the negotiations for the sale of 
my property. Now this property had been virtu- 
ally given me by Brother Baldwin, in addition to 
the regular salary which I felt to be satisfactory. 
In view of this fact, I offered to give the property 
to Brother Baldwin for anything he chose to pay 
for it. He refused to purchase it for anything less 
than its full value, and assured me I should feel 
free to dispose of it as well as I could and he would 
aid me in making the sales. 

I have not related the manner in which I came 
into possession of the second house and lot. My 
labor in the management of the school in the new 
brick building before it came into possession of 
Conference, was severe and exciting, and Brother 
Baldwin suggested that I build a new home on 
the lot near the school-grounds. I told him I had 
nothing to build with. He said it made no differ- 
ence. " You need a home here, and it will be my 
business to see that you get one. Now," said he, 
"will you come with me and select a lot? You 
may have any lot which you select, and I will 
make you a deed for it." I selected one over- 
looking the water. He didn't know whether it 
would be healthy, as we had suffered considerably 
from malaria of the same pond. "Well," said I, 



172 RKMIX1SCEXCE3. 

" I will select another lot more remote." He ob- 
jected to that, because, he said, the land was 
marshy and would cost too much to drain it. 
" Brother Holbrook," said he, " let me select you 
a lot, won't you?" "Yes," said I. He took 
me to his orchard, and, looking upon the village 
plan (which didn't include his orchard), he said, "I 
think the southern part of the orchard will make 
you a good lot." "Sir, "said I, "do you mean 
to say that you intend to give me a lot including 
one-third of your splendid orchard ? " " Does it 
suit you?" said he, "I am satisfied, if you are." 
That settled the matter. He proceeded at once to 
furnish me building materials for a new house, a 
two-story brick, 36x18. In digging the cellar I 
struck a vein of soft water, all the water in that 
region being specially impregnated with various 
salts from the clay soil, and too hard for many 
domestic uses. This is the way I obtained my 
two houses in Berea. 

On another visit to Berea I met Brother Bald- 
win going home from Cleveland. After inquiring 
as to my condition, and the health of my family, 
he began to give me the news from Berea, during 
the few weeks in which I had been absent. Among 
other things of interest that he mentioned, he 
said that he had been engaged in building a new 
railroad to his quarries in Berea, and the railroad 
would be completed in a few days, for the trans- 
portation of his produce, grindstones, and other 
such wares. " Oh, " said he, " I want to tell you a 



SOME EXPERIEN'CES WITH JOHN BALDWIN. 1/3 

little experience I had the other day in going to 
Cleveland. You know I am not very particular in 
my dress, and I started from my quarries with 
several thousand dollars in my pockets to pay for 
the iron which I had purchased from the Cleveland 
and Columbus Railroad Company. When the 
conductor came along to collect the fare, he ad- 
dressed me rather roughly, saying : ' You old cuss, 
what are you doing here ?' I told him I was on 
my way to Cleveland to attend to some business. 
'Well,' said he, 'come here with me.' I did 
not move quite as fast as I do sometimes, and he 
found it necessary to assist me, by taking hold of 
my collar and leading me out into the baggage car, 
where he set me upon a pile of mail bags. After 
collecting the fare of the rest of the passengers, 
he returned to me with the inquiry, ' Well, old 
chap, have you got your fare ready?' I told him 
I would get it ready as soon as I could. Said he, 
' Hurry up, hurry up,' I took out my old pocket- 
book, which happened to have about ;^ 10,000 in it, 
and turned over the bills one after another, ap- 
parently to see if I could find a small bill to pay 
my fare. As I was turning over the ^100 bills, I 
looked up to the fellow to see how he was taking 
it. He was beginning to sweat and look rather 
wild. I told him for his encouragement that I 
thought I could pay my fare, if he would only give 
me a little more time. I didn't find the bill 
I was looking for, in fact, I had a pass, but I 
knew it was not there. In the meantime he broke 



174 REMINISCENXES. 

out: 'Who in h — 1 are you any how?' * Oh, 
that doesn't make any special difference, does it, 
if you get your fare all right ? Now, come to think 
of it, I have a pass over this road, if I have not left 
it at home.' Not waiting for my pass, he shot 
out of the car. I continued sitting on the mail- 
bags until I got to Cleveland, as I had not ob- 
tained permission to occupy any other place. 
The authorities, however, heard of the occurrence 
through the passengers, or some of the employes, 
and assured me that I should never be troubled 
with him again. He was discharged, I suppose, 
as I never saw him afterward." 

Another piece of news he related on our way to 
Berea. I will try to relate it in his own words as 

nearly as I can. "You remember Sister C , 

Brother Holbrook?" "Yes, sir." "Well, you 
know that she is a devoted Christian, but has her 
moods. She came into our house one morning in 
a special mood of exultation, and addressed me 
with, ' Brother Baldwin, don't you think there was 
a special interposition of Providence in Brother 

Holbrook's leaving here and Brother H -taking 

his place as Principal of our school ?' * How so ?' said 
I, 'Why, don't you see, //^rt/ little man could never 
have controlled these bad young men that have 
been here this year. It takes Brother H— = — to 
crush them and keep things in order.' I replied, 

* Why Sister C , Brother Holbrook was here 

nine years and the school grew continually under 
his management, and I never knew of his havinc^ 



SOME EXPERIENCES WITH JOHN BALDWIN. I 75 

any bad students to manage. It is my opinion 
if he had remained here nine years longer that 
there would have been no bad boys in the school 
to manage.' " 

After he had completed the large brick build- 
ing which I have mentioned before, his wife, hav- 
ing exerted herself to board the hands, was pros- 
trated with a low, nervous fever, brought on by 
overwork and exhaustion. He left all his business 
to other people and gave his entire attention to 
nursing his wife, with such other help as he deemed 
necessary. He employed no physician. He heard 
that some of the neighbors were circulating the 
scandal that he was too stingy or too crotchety to 
employ a physician. Now, no man thought more 
of his wife than Brother Baldwin, nor had reason 
to. This report, therefore, was more than he 
could stand. He did not wish to trust his wife in 
the hands of a physician, fearing the result might 
be very uncertain, but felt that his own constant care 
and affection were necessary to her recovery. The 
plan which he adopted to quell these scandalous 
remarks was to me exceedingly interesting and like 
the man himself. He made me his confident from 
the first. The plan \\as this: He first sent for 

Dr. H , the leading physician of , about 

twenty miles from Berea. He came, spent about 
twelve hours in examining Mrs. Baldwin's case, 
and decided, after this long, serious and faithful 
examination, that if there was any local trouble it 
was in her lungs, prescribed for her and said that 



176 REMINISCENCES. 

the most she needed was good nursing. He left 
the case in Bro. B. 's hands. The next day Brother 

Baldwin sent for Dr. W , an old physician 

about four miles south of Berea, in Strongsville. 
He came and spent a day examining her symp- 
toms, for Brother Baldwin was considered the most 
important patron in that part of the State, per- 
haps. Not being informed as to the decision of 

Dr. H , he concluded that the difficulty of 

Mrs. B. — if there was any local disease — was in 
her kidneys, saying also, that her sickness was 
principally from overwork, and the most that she 
needed was rest and careful nursing. Next day 

Dr. L , a young physician, was sent for. He 

came, and examining the case about five minutes, 
without hesitation said the only difficulty was in 
her stomach, and that her digestion was impaired. 
The next day these three physicians were called to 
hold a consultation. Each found that the others had 
been called before. They were previously com- 
mitted on these diagnoses. After they had wran- 
gled about two hours and had come to no agree- 
ment. Brother Baldwin dismissed them, saying 
perhaps he had better take the case again himself. 
He paid their fees and they departed, not suspect- 
ing the trick that had been played upon them. 
The fun of the thing was the intelligence, pene- 
tration and confidence of the young doctor, who 
had been practicing only a few weeks, while it 
took all day for the old physicians to find out 



SOME EXPERIENCES WITH JOHN BALDWIN. 1 7/ 

what he ascertained in five minutes, and prescribed 
for accordingly. 

I left Berea in 1849. I" i^So, Brother Bald- 
win, on his annual visit from Bayou Teche, La., 
where he had purchased a plantation, gave me a 
call at my residence in Lebanon, O. It was on 
this wise. The whole country, for some two or 
three years, had been terribly afflicted with tramps. 
Almost daily one or more called at my house. 
No doubt they had learned from each other that 
my wife never permitted a person to go away 
hungry from our door. Being seated with my 
family at dinner one day, we noticed a disagree- 
able-looking man going toward the kitchen where 
the tramps generally called. Josiah remarked,, 
looking at his mother, "There, ma, is one of your 
friends. " Mrs. Holbrook started to the kitchen, to 
meet him at the door. Looking at him kindly 
and earnestly, she said: " What do you want, sir?" 
He looked at her intently and said : " Why, Sister 
Holbrook, don't you know me?" "Why, Brother 
Baldwin, is that you?" My wife, in relating the 
circumstance afterward, vindicated her practice of 
feeding tramps by quoting the Scripture. "Be 
careful to entertain strangers," etc. 
12 



CHAPTER VIII. 



MY EXPERIENCES IN CHARDON, O. 

Having received an invitation from the citizens 
of Chardon to commence a school in that place, I 
removed there with my family in the fall of 1849. 
My school opened pleasantly, with a larger patron- 
age than I had expected, or than had been prom- 
ised. I took with me for an assistant. Miss Edna 
Whipple, a former pupil. We were thoroughly 
occupied with the work of the school. The 
patronage was at first entirely from the village and 
from the immediate surrounding country, and the 
study, for the most part, accomplished in the 
schoolroom. As the school progressed, students 
came in from abroad and secured rooms, some of 
whom only recited in the schoolrooms, studying 
in their own rooms. The children of the village, 
however, continued to do their school-work in the 
schoolrooms, both recitation and study. I took 
charge of the principal room, which was the study- 
room, hearing my recitations in the same room. 
Miss Whipple occupied a similar room and heard 
recitations, her classes studying under my charge. 
I introduced here the self-reporting plan of sus- 
(178) 



MY EXPERIENCES IN CHARDON, O. 1 79 

taining order, the same as I had previously used 
in Berea. There is no form of school management 
which has been the theme of so much bitter dis- 
cussion as this method. It is charged against it 
that it is an infallible method of training to lie; 
that it never, in any instance, can have any other 
effect upon the character and morals of its victims; 
that even the best of pupils will be demoralized 
by its inevitable influence. ' Where I first received 
my idea of the advantage of self-reporting, I am 
unable now to determine ; but the result in my 
practice and with my pupils, while it did not make 
a perfectly truthful individual of every pupil under 
its influence at once, was such that I was satisfied 
it was the best plan I had ever employed to train 
pupils to trutjifulness and to respect those who 
told the truth^yln reflecting upon this matter and 
endeavoring to account for the sad differences of 
opinion with regard to its influence upon the 
moral character of the students under its control, 
I have made this generalization: That in all cases 
where it has trained pupils to falsehood, deceit or 
treachery, it was from the utter mismanagement 
of the system, or from the unreliable character of 
him or her who attempted to apply it. For a 
moody or exacting person to adopt this plan 
would, as I apprehend, result in a failure. For 
an untruthful person, or one in whom the students 
had not the most implicit confidence, trusting to 
his honesty, and, I may say, his honor, the results 
would be sad indeed — infallibly so. 



l80 REMINISCENCES. 

Much is said upon moral instruction, and 
many books are written for the purpose of aiding; 
teachers in reclaiming their pupils from the im- 
morality of untruthfulness, and, doubtless, there 
are few teachers who have not made the strong- 
est effort to aid their pupils in overcoming this 
disastrous habit; but these efforts, so far as 
I have noticed, have been, for the most part, 
hortatory rather than practical. And if any 
measures have been used in this direction, 
they were nothing more nor less than puni- 
tive, and understood by the student to be vin- 
dictive. The hortatory plan, in other words, 
preaching, does very little good, so far as I have 
noticed, unless sustained by a consistent and 
kindly administration of thorough-going and prac- 
tical love for the truth and forbearance with those 
who have little regard for it. 

Now, training in any direction, as I understand 
it, requires that the trained have opportunity for 
practice under the possibility of failure in the lines 
of the desired improvement. The only practical 
plan in training for truthfulness — that is, such a 
plan as will give the student an opportunity to 
help himself, for training is nothing unless the 
trained takes hold of his own case — and the only 
really successful plan of training the pupil in over- 
coming this bad habit, that I have ever seen 
recommended or experimented upon, is that of 
self-reporting in some form or other. For, how 
can there be any training, in the true sense, other 



MY EXPERIENCES IN CHARDON, O. 151 

than that the pupil shall accept of the fact of his 
being trained, and make an effort to help the 
trainer to overcome the difficulty involved? Self- 
reporting, involving proper precaution, consistent, 
kindly administration, a hopeful purpose on the 
part of the trainer, a charitable construction for 
the partial failure of the trained, involves just the 
elements which constitute a successful course of 
training in any and every other line of human 
experience; none the less so in the matter of 
truthfulness, as the first object to be gained in 
moral improvement in an ordinary school of ordi- 
nary children. My experience in this direction 
was, on the whole, in every case wherever I used 
it, the gradual improvement of all who came under 
its influence. It did not prevent lying and deceit 
the first day entirely, nor the first month, nor the 
first term, nor the first year, with a good many 
children. What plan ever did, that did not involve 
self-reporting? But it never failed to reach a 
large majority of untruthful students, and to make 
them more watchful of themselves and more res- 
pectful to those whom they had reason to know 
were truthful, and better prepared to accept the 
conditions of religious influences in the church 
and Sabbath-school. To those Avho have tried it 
and failed, I would simply state, that there were 
some conditions mentioned above, which were 
lacking, as causes of the failure. The causes were 
not in the system itself; and if any teacher has 
any other system more practical or practicable, of 



1 82 REMINISCENCES. 

training children out of this form of wickedness 
into a rehable and truthful character, I have never 
heard of anything of the kind. I am still waiting 
and watching for a more practical plan of training 
in this direction. 

In its geological character Chardon was an in- 
teresting study for me. It is situated on a knob 
of higher elevation than any other point, perhaps, 
in Northern Ohio. Near the summit of this knob 
was a never-failing spring. The town seems to 
have been laid out about this spring, as "The 
Green," so-called, being in the center of the town, 
incloses the spring. It mattered little whether it 
was wet or dry, cold or hot, the overflow from 
this spring was not affected. A considerable 
brook flowed from it. Other springs on different 
sides of the knob also shed their smaller streams 
in various directions. It was a query with me, 
whence the source of all this supply of water, 
pure, clear and soft? In examining the outcrop- 
pings, I discovered that the formation was con- 
glomerate, constituted almost entirely of quartz 
pebbles of all sizes, from the most minute to the 
size of a man's head. These were held together 
by sufficiently fine cement, and not having ana- 
lyzed it myself, or having known of others analyz- 
ing it, I could hardly think the cement was 
limestone cement, as the water which flowed from 
it w^as entirely soft. The supply was found over 
the entire extent of the village — not that there 
were overflowing springs in every village lot, but 



MY EXPERIENCES IX ClIAKDOX, O. 1 8$ 

that the well of nearly every house, so far as I 
knew, was made by boring an orifice about four 
inches in diameter to a sufficient depth, varying- 
from six to twelve feet. A long, cylindrical 
bucket of tin, with a valve at the bottom, was 
used for taking water from these wells. The 
question arises, Whence the supply ot water? 
since no land any higher was found anywhere 
within fifty miles, if within a hundred miles. The 
only solution suggesting itself to me was, that the 
water came up from beneath — from the conglom- 
erate formation by capillary attraction, as it finds 
its way through the bottom of a sugar loaf to its 
top.. 

At the close of my first year Miss Whipple left 
me and entered into a marriage arrangement to 
emigrate to Walla Walla, Washington Territory. 
There were then no roads, and her company was, 
so far as I know, the first company that went 
through the wilderness to that coast. I presume 
she and her descendants can be found in that lo- 
cality at the present day. 

In those days St. Paul was far enough out of 
the world, and any educational efforts in that di- 
rection were certainly of a missionary character. 
It was my good fortune to meet, in one of my 
trips to Cleveland, a Miss Bishop, educated by 
Governor Slade, of Vermont, for the purpose of 
aiding the West in her educational progress. It 
was somewhat on this wise: I was buying books 
at the Cleveland Bookstore. It seems that the 



184 REMINISCENCES. 

ladies of Cleveland had formed a temporary asso- 
ciation, with very liberal contributions, for the pur- 
pose of furnishing Miss Bishop an outfit with 
which to commence her school work at St. Paul, 
among the half-breeds and other children inhabit- 
ing that locality. Miss Bishop was selecting the 
requisite books, school apparatus and stationery 
for her enterprise. While conversing with her 
her brother came in upon us, a reputable lawyer 
of Cleveland at that time. As there were no pub- 
lic conveyances further West than Chicago, I in- 
quired of her how she ever expected to get to St. 
Paul. "Why," said she, "my brother, here, in- 
tends to go with me as far as the public stages go; 
then I expect to go alone." "What!" said I, 
"all alone?" She said: "Yes; he is going with 
me as far as he dare. I am going the rest of the 
way by myself" The lawyer brother accepted 
the statement with a smile, and, I suppose, at 
least, there was the semblance of truth in the 
statement, though not so much, perhaps, as there 
was of humor and bravado. .It was characteristic, 
however, of Miss Bishop, as an educator, as a mis- 
sionary and as a lady. For many months after- 
ward her communications from St. Paul appeared 
in the Independent, and were exceedingly instruct- 
ive, interesting and racy. They at length ceased. 
It was some years afterward that I learned the 
cause of the discontinuance of her communications 
to the Independent. It was the old story. She 
fell in love with a reckless fellow out there and 



MY EXPERIENCES IN CHARDON, O. I 85 

threw herself away. And I must always think 
that this, and other like results, of Governor Slade's 
missionary efforts in behalf of the West, deterred 
him from continuing what seemed to me a very 
laudable enterprise. 

It was while living at Chardon, in 1850, that I 
first heard Governor Corvvin as a public speaker. 
I had seen him in New York City and heard him 
in friendly conversation, but only knew of his ora- 
torical powers as a current, historical fact. I 
made the journey of forty miles from Chardon to 
Cleveland for the express purpose of listening to 
Governor Corwin. He was canvassing the State 
in behalf of Henry Clay, the Whig candidate for 
the Presidency. Cassius M. Clay made the first 
speech. It was logical and commanding; about 
an hour in length. Governor Corwin followed, 
and, according to my judgment, Mr. Corwin's 
effort transcended anything and everything I had 
€ver heard from the leading orators of the nation, 
among whom I could enumerate Daniel Webster, 
John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay. In any 
role in which any one of these gentlemen excelled 
all others, whether that of senatorial dignity, of 
fiery declamation, or of winning and irresistible 
persuasion, Corwin was, according to my estimate, 
superior to any of the gentlemen above named. 
But in humor, in wit, in buffoonery, in ridicule, in 
travesty, in burlesque and in every line of the 
comic and grotesque, Governor Corwin was tran- 
scendent over everything that I ever witnessed. 



l86 REMlNIbCENCLS. 

My journey, the time and expense involved, and 
the fact of standing three hours, without any 
possibiHty of securing a seat, as one in a crowd of 
ten thousand, were a thousandfold compensated 
by the wonderful gifts of the inimitable orator; 
inimitable, as I think, in all these directions. 

On returning from Berea after the sale of my 
property, and being delayed beyond expectation, 
and feeling it necessary that I should be at home 
on Sabbath morning, I started from Berea to 
Cleveland late in the afternoon. Passing through 
Cleveland, I took supper, it being already dark, 
at a public house, several miles east of Cleveland. 
Calling for my horse immediately after supper, I 
went out to find the most unmitigated density of 
darkness that I had ever experienced. It was my 
purpose to travel as far as Kirtland, at least, that 
night. It was utterly impossible for me to distin- 
guish the road. I left the guidance of the horse 
to his own better sight. Before I had traveled 
very far — a half a mile or so — it gradually became 
lighter, so that I could distinguish the road. The 
clouds seemed to be as heavy and as dense, and 
the atmosphere as thick with fog as before, but all 
around the eastern horizon was a beautiful ribbon 
of light shining through the darkness. I had 
never witnessed such a phenomenon before, and . 
have never since. What would have been the re- 
sult of my night's venture in the darkness without 
this providential interposition in my favor, I am un- 
able to opine. As it was, however, I traveled with. 



MV EXPERIENCES IX CHARDOX, O. I 8/ 

the usual rapidity over the muddy road until I 
reached my destination for the night, about nine 
o'clock. The next morning, starting early for 
Chardon, I found my family in good condition, as 
I had hoped, the doctor in attendance, and one of 
my children born soon after my arrival. 

My experience with county examiners in the 
different counties where I have taught has been 
somewhat varied and considerably interesting. In 
every county I have found one of the examiners 
in a rival school. In Geauga County, as in other 
counties, it was the practice for the examiner to 
drill his pupils previous to the examination for 
days or weeks upon the very questions on which 
they were to be examined. Of course there 
was sufficient reason for objection to this plan. 
Every such examiner, for a temporary advantage, 
was working against the interest and honesty of 
the schools, his pupils and the community. Every 
such examiner has worked himself out of the con- 
fidence of his patrons and out of his position, 
sooner or later. Still, this is a grievous evil found 
in many parts of this State and in many others. 
The laws which have been enacted to correct the 
evil are, in most cases, by the conniving of 
the Probate Judge, whose duty it is to enforce 
them, ignored. The dishonesty thus practiced on 
pupil teachers becomes a working element in the 
schools thus obtained, and thus the malign influ- 
ence extends itself through the working forces of 
the counties and States. It is one of the unsolved 



1 88 REMINISCENCES, 

mysteries to me, how respectable and religious 
people can trust their children or wards, or others 
in whom they are interested, to that kind of de- 
moralizing teachers. Why do not the people of 
the county, or of the township, or of the town, 
execute the laws, exterminate such dishonesty and 
save their children from its terrible influence? 
Our laws are sufficiently explicit, but the com- 
munity lack the necessary thoughtfulness and 
moral firmness to execute them. 

Using the means obtained from the sale of my 
property in Berea, I went through Philadelphia 
and New York to Boston, with the purpose of 
selecting such apparatus as I might need for the 
illustration of the physical sciences. I expended 
;^2,5oo in making this outfit. The manufacturer 
of whom I bought the apparatus had been trained 
in the manufactory of my father, and had been a 
shop-mate of mine in Boston. He was afterward 
Mayor of that city. As I had been raised in a 
manufactory of apparatus, and had been trained 
in all its scientific uses, I felt it impossible to teach 
these sciences without apparatus and such aid as 
it would afford in the way of illustration and prac- 
tical work. Much of the same apparatus I retain 
at the present time; some, however, was destroyed 
in the burning of our university building in Leb- 
anon, Ohio, in January, 1883. It consisted of a 
thorough outfit in pneumatics, mechanics and 
chemistry. This was, perhaps, one reason why 
my school grew so rapidly in Chardon and more 



MY- EXPERIENCES IX CIIARDOX, O. I 89 

than filled the accojnmodations of the town. Dur- 
ing the first half of my second school year, from 
overwork, my* health began to fail, and I thought 
it best on the whole to retire for awhile from the 
business. I closed my school, refunded tuition 
and concluded to travel. Meanwhile, Dr. Nich- 
olls, of the Western Reserve Seminary, offered 
me an equal partnership in the institution of which 
he was Principal. I accepted the proposition, and 
after a few weeks' rest moved to Kirtland and 
took my position as Associate Principal in West- 
ern Reserve Teachers' Seminary. 



CHAPTER XII. 



EXPERIENCES IN KIRTLAND. 

Having sold my property in Chardon, and closed • 
up my business, I accepted the invitation of Rev. 
Truman Coe, to occupy his house in Kirtland with 
my family. "Uncle Coe," as both wife and I 
called him, had been intimately connected with 
our childhood and youth, as he was in partner- 
ship with my father in the Derby Academy, and 
afterward in a private school which both wife and 
I had attended as children. Truman Coe's father 
was a tanner ; Truman himself was a shoemaker. 
On the shoemaker's bench he acquired his educa- 
tion, at the time my father was at Yale. I have 
heard Uncle Coe allude to his studies upon the 
shoemaker's bench in words something Hke these: 
" For years, while working and mending my neigh- 
bors' shoes, I was mending my own wits from 
such authors as Cicero, Sallust, and Virgil." In 
fact, his familiarity with the Greek and Latin was 
more thorough and longer continued than that of 
most college graduates. I have heard my father 
allude to Uncle Coe in words like these: "/ could 
always accomplish anything I undertook, if I had 
(190) 



EXPERIENCES IN KIRTLAND. I9I 

good tools ; Brother Coe can do equally as well 
without any tools." Truman Coe had married 
my aunt, Anne Holbrook ; hence we called him 
Uncle Coe. His education was extended and 
thorough. The dons of Yale thought his success 
in self-education demanded recognition. The 
honorary degree of M. A. was conferred upon 
him before my memory. I remember him al- 
ways as a man of very kindly disposition, of equa- 
ble temperament, and especially fond, as I 
supposed, of his cousins, as he used to call my 
wife and me. He had always been, from my earli- 
est recollection, a praying man, and maintained fam- 
ily prayer and prayer in his school ; but it was not 
until an extensive revival swept over the country 
that Uncle Coe united with the church. He then 
took a decided stand as a working, efficient, ag- 
gressive Christian. He was ordained as a minister, 
and occasionally preached in Derby, and supplied 
vacant pulpits in the neighboring towns. About 
this time he was called to fill the pulpit at Kirtland, 
Ohio, where three of my Holbrook aunts had moved 
with their husbands and families, to take posses- 
sion of their respective farms, which had come 
to each as her patrimony. When I came to Ohio, 
I made Uncle David Holbrook's and Uncle Coe's 
equally my homes, but Melissa Pierson (my cousin) 
was at Uncle Coe's with her cousins, more, per- 
haps, than at her own home. Here we renewed 
our acquaintance ; she having left Derby at eight 
years of age. Uncle Coe was a cogent writer, and 



192 REMINISCENCES. . 

an interesting- preacher, and reckoned one of the 
strong men of Western Reserve. Exceedingly 
modest and reserved, he always waited to be 
called and urged before he acted, but when thus 
urged and roused, he exhibited powers which al- 
ways commanded respect. In Kirtland, after con- 
centrating the activities of the religious people in 
the Congregational Church to which he was called, 
and erecting a church building, he put up a very 
comfortable home for himself It was this home 
that Melissa and I frequented before we were 
married, and now occupied after we had been 
married seven years. Apropos, Uncle Coe traveled 
from Kirtland to Berea, a distance of forty miles 
or so, to marry "his children," as he then called us. 
When he was presented with the meager fee for 
the ceremony, by the newly-made husband, he 
turned to my wife and said: "Mrs. Holbrook, 
this is yours." It was the first time she was ad- 
dressed by that name. As an instance of Uncle 
Coe's temperament and self-forgetfulness, I will 
relate a circumstance which I had from my father: 
Once on a time, while he was paying addresses to 
Anne Holbrook, she being engaged in domestic af- 
fairs, just at that time having taken a batch of 
bread from the oven and distributed it upon the 
table to cool, Truman, thinking it time to depart, 
and being interested in Aunt Anne, more than in 
any other sublunary affair, seized a loaf of bread, and 
departed with it under his arm, leaving his hat 
upon a table. Whether Anne called after him, 



EXPERIENCES IN KIRTLAND. 1 93 

and corrected his mistake, or whether he put the 
newly-baked loaf on his head, and discovered his 
mistake in that way, I was not informed, but he 
returned after a while, and dumping the bread on 
the table, seized his hat and escaped. 
C Before entering upon my duties in Western Re- 
serve Seminary with Dr. Nichols, feeling that, as 
yet, my health was not sufficiently restored for the 
confinement of the school-room, I made a jour- 
ney to Cincinnati and New Orleans, for the pur- 
pose of introducing Holbrook's apparatus into the 
public schools in these two cities. I succeeded in 
selling about twenty sets to the Cincinnati schools, 
and about fifty sets to the New Orleans public 
schools. \ I had no letters of introduction; in fact, 
knew no one, to whom I could address myself. 
This was in 1850. I found Mr. Gilford, Superin- 
tendent of Public Schools in Cincinnati, and Mr. 
Barney, afterward State Commissioner, Principal 
of the High School. Mr. Knowlton was Assistant 
in the High School. I was treated with all desir- 
able consideration by all these gentlemen, and my^ 
visit to Cincinnati was to me agreeable and profit- 
able in every sense. 

I will go back a little and give an incident 
in Columbus, where I stopped to visit an old- 
friend. Dr. Asa D. Lord. The Democrats were 
then in possession of the old State House. 
As a joke, I suppose, more perhaps than for 
any other reason, they had granted the use of 
the Representatives' Hall for a course of lectures 
13 



194 REMINISCENCES. 

to Mrs. Cole, of Michigan. She was the first 
female lecturer that I ever listened to. I had at- 
tended two lectures of her course, and was about 
to depart for Cincinnati, when I learned, incident- 
ally, that her last lecture was to be delivered on 
Woman Suffrage. I was informed at the hotel, 
where I was stopping, by those who seemed to 
know, that arrangements had been made by those 
worthy legislators to get the cream of their joke 
in giving Mrs. Cole the use of their hall, out of the 
lady, by turning her into ridicule in her last 
lecture, which was on Woman Suffrage, The 
most witty Democratic speaker was selected for 
this purpose. He prepared himself for the occa- 
sion. The hall was crowded ; the front seats were 
occupied by the most fashionable ladies of Colum- 
bus and Cincinnati. They came to see their sister, 
Mrs. Cole, made a laughing-stock for their amuse, 
ment. For aught- I know there were as many 
Republican ladies present as there were Demo- 
cratic. From Mrs. Cole's appearance, when she 
ascended the Speaker's desk, she had evidently 
been informed of the fate which had been planned 
for her. Though her lectures were written, she 
had, in delivering them, given her notes little at- 
tention, speaking very fluently and forcibly from 
memory or from the excitement of the occasion. 
This evening, as she commenced reading her notes 
very closely, she made several errors in enuncia- 
tion, miscalling her words and exhibiting other signs 
of embarrassment and distress. Standing as I 



EXPERIENCES IN KIRTLAND. 1 95 

did, where I could see the countenances of all 
those ladies upon the front seats, it was very ap- 
parent to me that they enjoyed her discomfiture. 
A smile and a mutual recognition of her stumbling 
went along the whole line. But she proceeded 
and it was some minutes before she recovered her- 
self. Leaving her notes, even throwing them 
aside, she commenced her address in earnest, talk- 
ing to the Legislature, and not to those ladies who 
she discovered expected her defeat and annihila- 
tion. It is impossible for me at this day, having read 
and heard a hundred such lines of argument since, 
to reproduce her able address, but this I remem- 
ber, that after she had recovered herself she soon 
made some very happy points, in answering objec- 
tions to woman's use of the ballot, and as she 
made these points, one after another, the aforesaid 
ladies looked glum and in a measure subdued. 
Proceeding, however, giving little or no attention 
to the ladies, she took up one objection after an- 
other, making to each in succession a reply 
more able, more crushing and more unanswer- 
able, until, at some happy turn of her discussion, 
she brought down the house. I looked along 
the row of ladies to see how they took it. 
They began to smile in spite of themselves. An- 
other happy hit accomplished the demolition, if 
you please, of all opposition from these same 
ladies who had gone there to enjoy her crushing, 
but who now seemed rejoice in her triumph, and 
several of her last replies to the oft-repeated and 



196 REMINISCENCES. 

stupid objections won these ladies to clap as loud 
as their little hands and their fans would admit. I 
looked for the Senator who had taken a prominent 
place, sitting on one of the window-sills, and who 
had expected to leave not even a shadow of her or 
her argument, but a vacant window-sill only was 
all there was left of him. The replicant was miss- 
ing. She closed amid the uproarious and continued 
applause of all present. 

It was also my good fortune, while in Columbus 
at that date, to listen to John B. Gough for the 
first time, in the First Presbyterian Church of that 
city. I had heard much of Gough, but had never 
seen him. As it happened, two legislators took 
their seats near me, and as the speaker was delayed 
an hour beyond the time appointed for his appear- 
ance, by an accident to the train, these worthy 
legislators took up Mr. Gough as a theme for dis- 
cussion. Each seemed to vie with the other in 
denouncing, traducing and abusing him as a shal- 
low-pated "jack in the pulpit," who put on theat- 
rical airs and spoke something he had borrowed or 
stolen from some writer or orator. At length Gough 
entered the church. There was no particular demon- 
stration for or against him as a speaker. He took 
his place in the pulpit, but had only spoken a few 
sentences when he said he could not speak in that 
place, in that box. Turning to the committee he sug- 
gested that they bring two or three dry-goods boxes 
and make a platform. The boxes being brought, 
and a temporary platform erected, he again took 



EXPERIENCES IN KIRTLAND. I97 

his place as speaker. From the very commence- 
ment of his speech he carried his audience with 
him His humor, his wit, his scathing denuncia- 
tion of hquor-sdlers, his terrible pictures of the 
drunkard, the calamities of his home, were terri- 
bly thrilling and vivid. In one of his remark- 
able climaxes, in which, as I thought, his first 
sentence was as powerful an enunciation of his posi- 
tion as could be made, he went on for six progress- 
ive, accumulative steps in his climax, until the 
house, carried by spontaneous energy, rose, rose, 
rose to their feet — many standing on the benches — 
stretching their necks to the uttermost, ascending, 
if possible, by the same ladder of argument with his 
climax. It occurred to me, "How about my legisla- 
tive friends who had called him 'jackanapes' and 
'jack in the pulpit,' and all that?" I found both 
of them stretching themselves upon the benches 
and throwing their hats toward the ceiling, in 
common sympathy with the general appreciation 
of the wonderfully eloquent flight of the speaker. 
The special theme for this climax was the feelings 
of a mother when she first found that her only son 
was a drunkard. 

After I had spent a week or two in Cincinnati, 
and had become somewhat familiar with the work- 
ings of their school systems and with some of their 
prominent teachers, Mr. Gifford proposed to take 
me to Mount Adams and introduce me to Prof. O. 
M. Mitchell, who, he had been informed, had just 
returned from his first lecture tour throucfh New 



198 REMINISCENCES. 

England. The Professor was in a very happy 
mood. I was especially interested in his narrative 
of his triumph over the Harvard professors, Pierce 
and Bond. It seems he had metthese gentlemen 
at some scientific association previous to this, in 
New York or elsewhere, and knew them at sight. 
When lecturing in New Haven to the highly intel- 
ligent people of that city, with increasing audi- 
ences, he had sent his agent to Boston to advertise 
his course of lectures. He had heard from this 
agent that the professors there had said that his 
claims were preposterous, especially his claim in 
which he stated that he could measure the tenth 
part of a second of circular distance in the heavens 
with his new apparatus. By the way, I ought 
to say here, to make the matter more intelligible, 
that Dr. Locke, of Cincinnati, and Professor 
Mitchell were each claimants for the invention 
of a machine by which wonderful accuracy was 
obtained both in measuring time and circular dis- 
tance. I had already visited Dr. Locke and found 
him very communicative, very intelligent and very 
interesting, and not at all sparing in his denuncia- 
tions of his rival in his "absurd" claims for original- 
ity in this invention. The apparatus in both cases 
was connected with an astronomical clock carried 
by electricity. But I will go on with my story. 
Under the influence of some men of leading so- 
cial position in Boston, who had been reached by 
letters from Prof. Silliman, who had previously 
lectured in Boston, and through communications 



EXPERIENCES IN KIRTLAND. I99 

to the daily newspapers, Prof. Mitchell found, 
when he reached his audience hall, an immense 
assemblage ; seats full and almost every standing 
place filled. The aforesaid Professors were not 
present. Mitchell felt very much 'disappointed. 
He, however, proceeded with his lecture as usual. 
He had not occupied many minutes before he no- 
ticed the entrance of these two gentlemen to 
whom he had sent a polite note of invitation. 
They stood in a very remote part of the room 
and as far in the shade as possible. Prof. Mitchell 
proceeded with his lecture, and, I am sure, if his 
lecture was as interesting and as fascinating as his 
description of it, he must have brought down the 
house over and over. "All the time," said he, 
" I was making my advances and winning the ac- 
knowledgments of my audience and their appre- 
ciation of my points, I was slyly viewing the 
place to see what influence it would have upon the 
Harvard gentlemen." He took his hat, as he 
was talking to me, and commenced his expla- 
nation that he had then given to his audience, 
coming by degrees to the final irrefragable demon- 
stration of the point, that he could measure, instead 
of the one-tenth, the one-hundreth part of a second 
with entire accuracy. He continued: "As I was 
approaching the climax I noticed the people were 
beginning to rise and reach forward, as if to catch 
more clearly and distinctly my line of argument. 
But as I reached my final declaration, which 'left 
not a loop to hang a lingering doubt upon,' a gen- 



200 REMINISCENCES, 

eral storm of applause burst from the audience. 
Where were the Professors ? They had, uncon- 
sciously to me, been supplied with chairs. Each 
of them stood on his chair, reaching and stretching 
his neck, and clapping for his life. It was the su- 
preme moment of my existence. The Professors 
very kindly came up afterward and offered me 
their hands, making all sorts of apologies for rais- 
ing a question as to my claim to a new advance in 
astronomical precision." 

In New Orleans I presented myself without let- 
ters of introduction to Mr. Shaw, Superintendent 
of Public Schools of that city. He had been ac- 
quainted with my father in Boston, and I was very 
cordially received, and my plans for introducing 
apparatus into the public school system furthered 
by his representations in my behalf. I was as- 
signed a very pleasant room in the City Hall for 
the exhibition of my apparatus, and was visited 
by several members of the board, and had an op- 
portunity to explain the uses of different articles 
of apparatus to these gentlemen. When the sub- 
ject came before the board for action, thirty sets 
were purchased. While the matter was pending, 
I had an opportunity to visit the different institu- 
tions and different points of interest in New Or- 
leans. I found Dr. Olmstead, a former pupil, 
who was practicing medicine in the suburbs. 
His acquaintance in the city rendered my visit more 
satisfactory by far than it would otherwise have 
been. With him I visited the slave market and at- 



EXPERIENCES IN KIRTLAND. 20I 

tended a slave auction. With him. I also visited the 
cotton market and witnessed the operations in that 
arena. Through his influence I was invited to the 
homes of several Southern men, both in the city 
and in the suburbs. All represented New Orleans 
as a good place in which to make money, but not 
a place where any one would desire to raise a fam- 
ily. After moving my boarding place several 
times, from one hotel to another, for the purpose 
of becoming better acquainted with Southern 
people and Southern usages, I secured board at 
last with a Mrs. Drake on Tchoupitoulas Street. 
She occupied three or four buildings, arranged 
in continuity, and, perhaps, had the most 
fashionable business boarding-house in the city. 
Her boarders were chiefly from Boston, and, so 
far as my acquaintance extended among them, 
they were courteous and communicative. 

Being, for the time, the last arrival, I was seated 
at the table in the place of honor, next to our 
hostess. As is true of the great majority of Southern 
ladies, Mrs. Drake was an excellent conversa- 
tionalist, and while ready at replying to my objec- 
tions to South&rn life and Southern usages, and 
especially to that of the Southern institution, 
slavery, she was equally ready on stating objec- 
tions to all Northern usages, and especially to our 
position on the aforesaid Southern institution. 
She represented that her servants were the most 
happy and contented class of people — and she em 
ployed a dozen or more — that could be found, and 



202 REMINISCENCES. 

that she had recently made a fine wedding for one 
of her servant girls with the head butler of her es- 
tablishment, whom she had hired of a neighbor. I 
don't remember how much she said the wedding 
cost her, but it was a considerable amount more 
than is often spent by respectable families in the 
North for a daughter's wedding. She had been 
the wife of a physician of South Carolina, who 
owned a plantation adjoining that of John C. Cal- 
houn. He had, however, sold his plantation and 
invested the avails in banking in New Orleans. 
Here he had been unsuccessful, had failed and 
died, leaving her with little or nothing, to take care 
of herself and educate her children. She expressed 
the warmest admiration for John C. Calhoun as a 
citizen, slave-holder and Christian. "And," said 
she, "Mr. Calhoun sacrificed more for his thirty 
or more servants than any Northern man — I might 
say, than all Northern men — have sacrificed to ben- 
efit the colored population of the South. For 
instance, he built a continuous line of brick tene- 
ments, sufficient to accommodate all the families of 
his plantation, at an expense of ^25,000 or more, 
and furnished them in a manner more comfortable, 
I apprehend, than the majority of the tenements 
and homes of laborers at the North. Unfortu- 
nately, however, the negroes, fearing the depreda- 
tions of each other, or of negroes in the adjacent 
plantations, shut themselves at night so closely as 
to bring upon themselves a contagious disease, by 
which a number of them were swept off. Again, 



EXPERIENCES IN KIRTLAND. 203 

to save the remainder, he erected other cabins and 
permitted his Hne of brick tenements to go to 
wreck. He thus proved that, beyond a certain hmit, 
it is worse than useless to expend money on the 
negro. But whatever can be spent, and whatever 
advantages can safely be bestowed upon the slave 
population, I believe for the most part — I admit 
there are exceptions — are bestowed upon negroes 
for their health, for their religious enlightenment 
and for their prosperity. In fact, if there can be 
found a corresponding population in the North — 
I do not think there can be, in regard to content, 
and industry and satisfaction with their state, it 
is my opinion, having traveled in the North very 
considerably, that the slaves are better provided for, 
more are converted and saved, than in the corre- 
sponding laboring population of the North." 

Her denunciations of the Abolitionists were 
bitter and endless. But especially did she declare 
that if she could get that black-hearted Abolition- 
ist, Giddings, under her power, she would show 
him as little mercy as he was exhibiting toward 
the slave-holding population in the South. "Why, " 
said she, "I really believe that if he could have 
his own way, he would incite the negroes to rise 
and murder every one of us." "But," said I, 
"Madam, it may be my misfortune that I live in 
the vicinity of Joshua R. Giddings. Though I 
have only known him as a public speaker, having 
no personal acquaintance, from all I do know of him 
as a citizen, he is a public-spirited gentleman, and 



204 REMINISCENCES. 

enjoys the confidence and respect of all his 
neighbors. He secures the largest majority in 
his Congressional district of almost any man in 
-the North, and except among the lowest class of 
our population, the saloon men and their abettors, 
he enjoys an enviable and unimpeachable reputa- 
tion." 

This Mrs. Drake was a lady, and there was 
a bitter contest going on in her mind between 
her desire to annihilate the Abolitionist and to 
treat me with the respect which she always gave 
to strangers, and, I suppose, to friends. I hardly 
ventured so far as to say that I was one of Joshua 
R. Giddings' constituents, and had given my vote 
to send him to Congress. A circumstance which 
occurred, however, in Painesville, O., with which 
I was conversant, I made use of in such a way as 
I thought would interest rather than offend her. 

My story ran thus: "We had an interesting 
Abolitionist lecturer passing through Northern 
Ohio. I had the pleasure of hearing him 
twice. He was, however, of Southern birth, the 
natural son of Governor Mason, of Virginia; he 
called himself by the name of his father and former 
master. He secured crowded audiences wherever 
he went ; his natural oratory carried conviction 
even to those most opposed to his views, and his 
representations of his own disabilities and suffer- 
ings from the * sacked institution ' enlisted the sym- 
pathies of the most obdurate. I will not give his 
history, but will only narrate an incident in his 



EXPERIENCES IN KIRTLAND. 205 

Northern life. Making Painesville his headquarters 
with his family, which he had redeemed from 
slavery, he joined the Congregational Church of 
the town. He was accustomed to attend the 
Thursday evening prayer-meeting. A noted slave- 
catcher of Virginia, having heard of his where- 
abouts, and having come to Painesville with a gang 
of six men, was tracking Mason, to find a favorable 
opportunity in which to seize and manacle him and 
to restore him to his legal owner, one of the heirs of 
Gov. Mason, for which, of course, he expected 
a laree reward. The time selected for the seizure 
of his victim was on his return home from prayer- 
meeting, as it was discovered that he went 
through an unfrequented and unlighted street. 
Armed to the teeth the gang surrounded and 
rushed upon Mason ; three or four of them seized 
him and attempted to throttle him in order to 
handcuff him, bind him and take him in the vehi- 
cle already provided, beyond reach of any hope of 
release and relief. Mason, being a powerful man, 
and his liberty being at stake — which he declared 
he valued more than life — he was enabled to hurl 
the ruffians in all directions and to jump upon the 
man whom he at once recognized as the chief kid- 
napper. He then ran and escaped, not going to 
his home at all, but rushing away in the dark ; he 
found the lake shore as speedily as possible, went 
aboard of a sloop and went to Canada. The kid- 
napper upon which this man, weighing two 
hundred and -fifty pouuds, had jumped, found him- 



206 REMINISCENCES. 

self disabled with fractured ribs. He was takefi to 
the hotel and left there. The other ruffians at 
once made their escape for fear of arrest for kid- 
napping, leaving him with little money and no 
friends, and liable to arrest, for the onslaught had 
been observed by several witnesses. Now, Madam, 
who do you think ministered to the wants of this 
crushed and miserable wretch? Who do you think 
carried him supplies and food ? Who do you think 
employed a physician to set his bones, and assured 
the hotel-keeper that the bills would be paid? In 
short, who do you think took care of this desper- 
ado in his extremity? Was it your friends, so 
called, in the North?" Said she: "I suppose 
you wish me to understand that it was the Repub- 
licans?" " Most assuredly," said I, "It was the 
wives of these same ' black-hearted Abolitionists ' 
who cared for him, and when the kidnapper was 
sufficiently recovered to leave, the bills were paid 
and he was furnished money enough to return 
to Virginia by these same women." Said I, 
"Madam, the South are truly mistaken in their 
views with regard to the intentions and purposes 
of the Abolitionists. If you will permit me to say, 
and will not be offended, I will state that I have 
been an Abolitionist and voted the Abolition 
ticket, and voted for James G. Burney. My posi- 
tion in regard to slavery is this, not that I have any 
special admiration for the colored population, either 
North or South. It, is true, I would have them 
have their rights and opportunities to be prepared 



EXPERIENCES IN KIRTLAND. 20/ 

for citizenship, but my chief interest and aim in all 
Abohtion movements is to save the white popula- 
tion of the South from the degradation which 
slavery inflicts. For, through all my acquaintance 
with Southern men — and I have known a great 
many — the evils of slavery fall immensely more 
heavily upon the white families, their sons, and I 
may say, the daughters, of the South, than upon 
the negroes, in the fact, the idleness, imposed 
upon the young men, in consequence of the dis- 
grace of labor, brings upon the South and upon all 
its families the inevitable evils which would be re- 
moved by a necessity for industry." This was as 
far in discussing this subject as I wished to go with 
this highly accomplished, intelligent, and, as I be- 
lieve, most worthy Christian woman. I must con- 
clude my narration in regard to her, however, by 
saying that my confession that I was one of those 
"black-hearted Abolitionists" did not seem to 
diminish her kindness and attention to me per- 
sonally. 

I was informed by Superintendent Shaw that the 
Catholics of New Orleans had a distinct set of 
schools for Catholic children, and that the parents 
in confession were required to tell where their 
children attended school. But in passing through 
the various school buildings, I discovered in nearly 
every room more or less Irish children. Remark- 
ing to Superintendent Shaw that I thought that 
the control of the priests over the parents was 
not very stringent, he replied that undoubtedly the 



208 REMINISCENCES. 

.mothers, In giving their confessions, stated that 
their children attended Catholic schools. In a 
sense this was true, as the children were absent 
generally" about two half days each week from the 
public schools, and this was condoned by the 
teachers under the direction of the board. Thus, 
while the mothers were able, in their confessions, 
to state that their children were attending the 
parochial schools of the Catholic Church, they 
were, in fact, regular attendants, with these ex- 
ceptions, in the public schools almost universally 
throughout the city. This may be taken as a sample 
of the truthfulness of the Catholic confessional, 
and really of the lax control of the priests over 
their parishioners. 

The most able Methodist preacher that I heard 
while in New Orleans, was Dr. C , from Ver- 
mont, Avho had been there some months. His his- 
tory and the occasion of his being in New Orleans 
seem worth relating. Being a presiding elder in the 
North, a man of first-class ability, he wielded a wide- 
spread influence in every department of the Meth- 
odist denomination. His wife was a devout and 
earnest Christian ; she conceived that she was the 
recipient of direct communications from the spirit 
world. Among other impressions that she received 
from these heavenly messengers was, that on a 
certain day, at twelve o'clock at night, she was to 
die and be translated at once. The impression was 
so decided, and her conviction so positive, that she 
communicated it to her husband, persuading and 



EXPERIENCES IN KIRTLAND. 20g 

convincing him of the truthfuhiess of this spiritual 
revelation. She entreated her husband to make 
all necessary arrangements for her departure, and 
begged of him to place their three children in 
charge of a niece who had lived with them some 
length of time. The plan was opened up to' the 
niece and gained her assent, and even went so far, 
under the expressed wish of the wife, as to have 
it understood, that, in due time, she should take 
the position of mother to their children. Through 
the young lady and her confidences with her lady 
friends, the matter leaked out and became subject 
of general gossip. It did not seem to excite any 
inimical remark, nor to impair the influence of 
the worthy presiding elder, but all seemed to be 
convinced that the impression of the good wife and 
mother w^as really of heavenly origin. The time 
approached. The wife was in her usual health. 
She was of the opinion that she was to be taken 
at the appointed time. The time arrived — but 
she didn't die and she couldn't die. And the dis- 
appointment of all parties, of the good Methodist 
people, of the presiding elder, and ofthe young lady 
whose prospects were thus blighted, were intense 
and immense. The result w^as that the reverend doc- 
tor w^as compelled to abandon his work and seek an- 
other home. He found it with his wife, and 
was preaching with great power, satisfaction and 
success in New Orleans. The story I obtained 
from one of my pupils afterward, who was familiar 
with all the circumstances in the North. 
14 



2IO REMINISCENCES. 

While in New Orleans, I suffered severely with 
cholera. This was in 185 i. While walking on 
Canal Street, one morning about ten o'clock, I was 
attacked as if by an instantaneous shock. I had 
had one siege of cholera in Canada, three years 
before, and had just escaped with my life, but I 
had learned to manage myself. I staggered into a 
bath-house just near me, and called for a hot bath 
and a glass of brandy, and with all speed, with the 
little strength I had left, I let the hot water in 
upon me, sipping every few moments from the 
brandy. I continued, perhaps, half an hour, per- 
haps longer, in the hot bath, just as hot as I could 
bear it without scalding, until I felt the perspira- 
tion running down my forehead. I then knew that 
I was safe from that attack, but felt it imperatively 
necessary for me to leave New Orleans at once. 
Advertisements were out for two boats to leave 
that day for St. Louis. I visited the boats and 
found the "Grand Turk" about to start at one 
o'clock in the afternoon. The passage was ;$I2. 
The boat seemed to me to be a very desirable 
one, and I was assured that the passengers were 
of the most respectable character and that all the 
berths had been engaged except one or two. It 
occurred to me that it would be better, before pay- 
ing for a berth, to visit the other boat, the " Alex. 
Scott." I found an equally respectable boat, the 
charge ;^20, and few berths engaged. I concluded 
it would be the best for me, under the circum- 
stances, to take the boat which was least crowded 



EXPERIENCES IN KIRTLAND. 211 

and pay a higher price. The boat started at six 
o'clock in the evening. In the course of the trip 
up the river we passed the "Grand Turk," as it 
stopped at intervening ports much more fre- 
quently than the "Alex. Scott." Being hailed, 
it was reported that all was well. On the day 
after we arrived at St. Louis, however, it was re- 
ported that the " Grand Turk " had gone into 
quarantine with fourteen cases of cholera on board, 
having had twenty-one deaths on the way up. I 
then thought that I had been providentially guided 
in taking passage upon the "Alex Scott." 

On the trip I met with Mr. Chouteau, of St. 
Louis, with whom I formed a very agreeable 
acquaintance. The ground of our acquaintance 
was our sympathy in mineralogy. I had collected, 
at New Orleans, from the wharves and other 
sources, a very considerable little cabinet of min- 
erals, and exhibiting them to one of the passen- 
gers, and explaining how I had obtained one and 
another, and another, and where each of these 
minerals was found, insitii, Mr. Chouteau happened 
to overhear our conversation, and immediately 
formed one of our party. I found him a very 
ready conversationalist and an intelligent mineral- 
ogist. I will give some of his statements which 
■were at the time to me very interesting. On a 
tract of land in Missouri, which he had received as 
part of his patrimony, he had discovered a lead 
mine, and had excavated and reduced a large 
■quantity of ore, producing many tons of lead. 



212 REMINISCENCES. 

Now, one of the chief uses of lead is in making- 
glass. He sold several tons of his lead thus ob- 
tained to a glass firm in Louisville. They informed 
him that the lead he had furnished was useless, as 
it colored all the glass purple. He at once em- 
ployed an assayist to determine what was the in- 
gredient in the lead ore which rendered his 
lead unsalable. The assayist found a consider- 
able proportion of oxide of cobalt. Now, this 
oxide was found in the mineral in such proportions 
that it was more valuable than the lead itself, 
when separated. It was used extensively in the 
potteries of England for coloring the enamel blue. 
Having learned by his correspondence the value 
of this mineral in London, as furnished to various 
potteries, he chartered a ship at New Orleans, and, 
by means of steamboats, loaded the ship with ore 
of lead and cobalt. He went on the same ship to 
Liverpool and opened a correspondence with the 
principal potteries of England, informing them 
of the material he had and of its proportions of 
both lead and cobalt, the lead more than paying 
for the reduction. Before, however, he had re- 
ceived any definite reply or orders from any of 
these establishments, he found that they had been 
corresponding with each other, and agreed to give 
him half, a cent a pound, instead of two cents, as 
he had proposed. After having visited them sep- 
arately, and finding that there was no breaking the 
league, he went aboard the ship and departed to 
New Orleans, taking his ore with him. Before 



EXPERIENCES IN KIRTLAND. 21 3 

lie reached New Orleans, however, orders had 
been sent to St. Louis to his address, calling for 
many times as much of the material as he had ex- 
ported to England and back again, and at his own 
price. 

While I was in New Orleans there was a Wm. 
McKinney there in business, who afterward mar- 
riee my cousin, Miss Catherine Coe. The same 
year he closed business in that city, and in coming 
up the river, the boat was burned on which he had 
taken passage. Not being able to reach a landing 
place, the passengers were obliged to jump over- 
board. Among the rest was a German who had a 
considerable amount of gold. He tied his gold 
in a handkerchief, and with another handkerchief 
around his neck. McKinney assured him that he 
could not swim with that gold ; he would certainly 
go to the bottom. " No matter," said the German, 
"if my gold is gone I may as well go myself." 
So over he went into the water, and was never 
seen more. Whether his handkerchief of gold was 
ever fished up, I am not able to say. Mr. McKin- 
ney himself jumped over, with his drafts for ^5,000 
in his pocket; as he rose to the surface he was 
seized by another passenger, who said he could 
not swim. Feeling that it was a matter of life 
and death for both of them, he was compelled to 
beat the individual off by striking him in the face. 
Being a good swimmer, he reached land, but it 
was a very narrow escape. With many doubts 
and some compunctions, I have heard him narrate 



214 REMINISCENCES. 

the fact to several private audiences. I ought here 
to say that Mr. McKinney was one of the most 
considerate and humane of men. 

On reaching St. Louis, I thought it advisable to- 
visit several cousins who lived at Marine Settle- 
ment, about 30 miles east of St. Louis in Illinois. 
This was on the line of the [Ohio and Mississippi 
Railway, which was not then sufficiently completed 
for the conveyance of passengers. Consequently I 
made my journey in a stage coach, over the seven- 
mile bottom of the Mississippi River. In conversa- 
tion with some passengers, about the overflow of 
the Mississippi, it was remarked that there had 
been no overflow for several years, but that on aa 
average, the entire bottom was placed underwater, 
from two to five feet deep, once in seven years. I 
completed my trip ; the rain was falling steadily 
all the way. I thought it necessary to return and 
make business arrangements in St. Louis. I 
reached Illinoistown just in time to take the last 
boat that went to St. Louis that night ; the whole 
country, at this time, being submerged by the 
rising flood. Next morning, going to the observ- 
atory of the hotel, I saw the entire bottom, as far 
as eye could reach, up and down the river, covered 
with the swelling flood. It was a fearful sight, 
considering the immense damage done to houses, 
stock and other property. 

I made, while visiting in St. Louis, acquaint- 
ance with many of the city teachers in the 
public schools, and with Mr. Edward Wyman^ 



EXPERIENCES IN KIRTLAND. 21 5 

who was in charge of a very popular private insti- 
tution for boys. He was preparing for a grand 
exhibition and procession, and semi-military dis- 
play of his school. It came off while I was there. 
Being an invited guest, I went with the procession 
to a suburban garden, and enjoyed the occasion 
with its festivities and demonstrations, as an ob- 
server rather than as a participator in the various 
sports and games in which the boys delighted 
themselves in the garden. 

The Principal of one of the public schools gave 
me an interesting account of his listening to Jenny 
Lind, who had been in the city just before I ar- 
rived. My friend was enjoying a salary of ;^i, 500 
a year, which was a meager income for himself 
and wife. Said he, " I made up my mind before 
Jenny Lind came here, that it would be beyond 
my means to purchase tickets at the crazy prices 
at which they were selling, but as all my friends 
and everybody else 6f any respectability were 
buying tickets, I concluded it would be better and 
safer for me to go. But it cost me ^14 to hear 
Jenny Lind the first night she was in St. Louis, 
and this extravagance was really against my judg- 
ment and my preference. Tickets for the second 
night had much increased in price, but I went the 
second night and paid my ;^20, not because I had 
to, but because I wanted to." 

Being in New Orleans during the last week of 
April, strawberries were upon the table, but for 
the last time of the season. Before I left the city 



2l6 REMINISCENCES. 

'they had disappeared. Arriving in St. Louis, 
the first thing that was presented to me as a guest, 
was a plate of most luscious strawberries. The 
week after, when spending a few days in Cincin- 
nati, the common dessert at the hotel was straw- 
berries. When I arrived at Kirtland, the following 
week, strawberries were scarcely yet in bloom. 
So that I had my turn of strawberries at home in 
due time, but my family thought, that as I had my 
rations of strawberries previously to that, I could 
well afford to let them have whatever came, to 
themselves — to which I readily assented. 

In commencing work in the Western Reserve 
Teachers* Seminary, I took the department of 
mathematics. All this work was, so far as prac- 
ticable, assigned to me, in making up the general 
programme. Other teachers took literature and 
language. It was amusing to me to learn, per- 
haps by overhearing, and perhaps by direct state- 
ment, that, "while Holbrook was considered 
first-rate in mathematics, it was thought he didn't 
amount to much in any other line of study and in- 
struction." This was the more amusing as I had 
heard the same remark made with regard to Hol- 
brook in Berea, in reference to his skill as a 
teacher of languages. "Holbrook is first-rate in lan- 
guages, but I don't believe he knows much in any 
other department." On coming to Lebanon, the 
same line of remark was not uncommon, but was 
varied thus : ' ' That Holbrook was really very good 
in natural sciences, but no one supposed that he 



EXPERIENCES IN KIRTLAND. 21/ 

was very well versed in any other branch." The 
truth being, that whatever Holbrook undertook, 
he tried to make so much more emphatic, im- 
pressive and successful than anything else that was 
done in any other direction, that it seemed to him 
and to others, for the time being, that there was 
nothing else in any direction of equal importance 
with the work in which he was then engaged. 

A young man by the name of Giddings, who 
had been formerly a pupil of mine in Berea, and 
liad left me, and had come to Kirtland for the 
reason, as he said, that he could not learn arith- 
metic under my instruction, but had succeeded 
admirably under the instruction of Dr. Lord, was 
now in attendance at Kirtland. Being somewhat 
curious to know in what Dr. Lord had excelled 
me, in reaching Giddings' case, and inquiring of 
Giddings as to why he preferred Dr. Lord, and 
succeeded with him and made no progress with 
me, he told me, he could understand the subject 
with Dr. Lord, but could not with me. Whether 
Dr. Lord had informed him before or afterward 
of his own difficulty in comprehending mathe- 
matics, I do not know, but this is the statement I 
received from Dr. Lord in regard to his own apti- 
tude in mathematics. Said he: "I was dull 
enough in all .branches, but especially in arithme- 
tic and algebra. My teachers gave me up almost 
as impracticable, but by dint of continued effort in 
having most of the examples wrought for me by 
other pupils, or by taking them down in recita- 



2l8 REMINISCENCES. 

tion, I had recorded in a proper note-book the 
solution of every question in every text-book 
which I had ever studied during my course of in- 
struction. And even with my classes, as teacher, it 
is necessary to resolve every question in arithmetic 
and algebra, before trusting myself in giving in- 
struction to ordinary classes of young people." 
My inference was, at the time, that my failure 
with Giddings and many others, was from the fact 
of my own celerity in grasping mathematical cal- 
culations, and my consequent impatience with 
pupils. It taught me a valuable lesson, not only 
in teaching mathematics, but in every other line 
of my work, that a quick thinker needs to be con- 
stantly on his guard against impatience in ener- 
gizing those of slower mold. Giddings came again 
into my algebra class, and under the influence of 
my new conception of my inefficiency and incom- 
petency to teach mathematics to slow minds, and 
my determination to reach even the slowest cases, 
Giddings acknowledged that he found me a very 
satisfactory teacher. In this, I was very much 
encouraged, and not a little elated. 

In one of the recitations of my teachers' arithmetic 
class, I exhibited three methods of dividing one frac- 
tion by another, and, presenting them to the class, I 
desired them to bring in the demonstration the 
next day. Mr. Edson, a gentleman older than 
myself, and a popular teacher of the public schools, 
in the country round about, arose, and securing an 
opportunity to speak, said, "Mr. Holbrook, are 



EXPERIENCES IN KIRTLAND. 2ig 

these the only methods that you know of, of divid- 
ing one fraction by another?" It was more in the 
tone in which the question was asked, than, per- 
haps, the question itself, that roused me somewhat 
to indignation; and yet, knowing Mr. Edson to be 
one of the most loyal and earnest of my pupils, 
there was no sufficient cause for resentment. I 
held myself as well as I was able under the cir- 
cumstances, and thinking a moment replied : "Mr. 
Edson, I will give you from this to next Monday 
(it was then Friday) to master all the methods 
that you can discover or invent, for dividing one 
fraction by another, and will give you the first op- 
portunity, on Monday, of presenting them to the 
class. After you have exhausted all your methods, 
I will present as many more different methods of 
dividing one fraction by another, as you may be 
able to give and demonstrate. Not only so," I 
added, " but I will give you the use of my library, 
and I think, doubtless, Dr. Nicholls will give you 
the use of his. I am willing you should get all the 
help you can from Dr. Nicholls himself, and from 
any other quarter, and still I will give as many 
more different methods of dividing one fraction by 
another as you may be able to give in any amount 
of study you may give outside, or from any 
amount of help you may obtain." 

The class, consisting of eighty or so, of course, 
were much excited, and no doubt sympathized 
with Mr. Edson. He was a popular student. They 
thought I had involved myself in a losing game. 



220 REMINISCENCES. 

On Monday, at the usual hour, the class as- 
sembled, and as many others as could find space, 
in the recitation-room, to witness the result of the 
contest between pupil and teacher. Mr. Edson 
presented six new methods, in addition to those 
which I . had presented, with satisfactory demon- 
stration. At the close of his effort, I asked the 
pupils if they were satisfied that he had given new 
and different demonstrations, different from each 
other, and different from those which I had pre- 
sented. They all expressed their assent ; I took 
my place at the board, and presented at once six 
other methods, and gave my demonstrations. I 
asked Mr. Edson if these were different, and clearly 
demonstrated. He said, "Entirely so." "Are 
you satisfied, Mr. Edson?" "Yes, sir." "But, 
Mr, Edson, I have six more ; would you like to 
see them?" "Yes, sir." I immediately pro- 
ceeded to present six more methods with their 
demonstrations, asking the class each time if the 
method was satisfactory and different from any- 
thing that had been given before. Each of these 
was so received. At last I said, " Mr. Edson, are 
you satisfied?" He replied, "I am more than 
satisfied; I give up. I don't want any more." 
"But, Mr. Edson," said I, "I have twelve more 
to present." " But," said he, " I don't want any 
more, I have enough." "Very well," said I, "if 
you are satisfied we will not have any more ; we 
will proceed with the recitation." 

Mr. Edson came to me and apologized for his 



EXPERIENCES IX KIRTLAND, 221 

abruptness, and we are to-day, as we were ever 
afterward, the best of friends. Not long since, a 
pupil, who had gone to Michigan on an agency, 
had the same story to tell, as he obtained it from 
Mr. Edson, who is now in Michigan in business. 
During my connection with the Teachers' Sem- 
inary, the school increased rapidly, there being 
about 250 in actual attendance at our last session. 
I had previously had a call to go to Marlborough, 
and take the Principalship of the public schools of 
that town. Two, of the six Trustees of the Union 
School District had been pupils of mine at Berea — 
Mr. Abram Wileman and Mr. Amos Walton. 
Feeling that there was one part of the work of 
training teachers with which I was not suffi- 
ciently familiar by actual practice, namely, that of 
superintendency, I accepted the invitation, and 
quietly made my arrangements to leave Kirtland 
at the close of the school year. At the request of 
Dr. NichoUs, I permitted none of the pupilsto know 
my intentions. The first that was known by any 
pupil, or in fact, by any citizen, beyond " Uncle 
Coe," was my closing speech at our Reunion Ex- 
ercises, at the close of the year. My determina- 
tion was given as unalterable, and I had already 
contracted for a house in Marlborough, and for 
teams to move my family. Nevertheless, a con- 
siderable effort was made by the citizens, and a 
special demonstration by the students, to change 
my determination. Finding, however, that my 
separation from the school was inevitable, the 



222 REMINISCENCES. 

Students, in the course of the evening, collected ?. 
very considerable purse, as a parting present, and 
appointed a committee to make the presentation. 
I believe, if I could have possibly or honorably 
put aside my contracts, I should have been in- 
duced to remain. I have in my possession the 
subscription paper, with the names of the donors 
and the amounts contributed. This,- with many 
other such mementoes of the kindness and appre- 
ciation of my pupils at different times and places 
are treasured with fond and lasting appreciation ; 
especially, as many of my former pupils, who, 
were engaged in such acts of kindness and liberal- 
ity, are now occupying honorable and distinguished 
places in their various lines of business. 

When I first arrived at Kirtland, O., from the 
East, in 1837, the Mormons had collected there in 
large numbers under the leadership of Joe Smith. 
They were coming in rapidly from various direc- 
tions, many of them having sold their farms, 
homesteads and other property in order to reach 
the "promised land." The fact that Joe Smith 
had a revelation soon after a convert arrived, by 
which any property he might have brought with 
him was to be loaned to the Church, and he thrown 
upon himself for his support, did not seem to 
diminish his confidence in Smith's prophetical 
claims. Some very well-to-do and intelligent 
gentlemen had already moved into Kirtland, 
and thus had thrown in their property and their 
destinies with the Mormons. Among these was Dr. 



EXPERIENCES IN KIRTLAND. 223 

Cowdrey, a very intelligent and worthy gentle- 
man, formerly an elder of a Presbyterian Church 
in New York State. He was the father of Mar- 
cellus Cowdrey, a most estimable teacher, for 
many years Superintendent of Schools at San- 
dusky. Sidney Rigdon, formerly a Baptist minister 
of Hamilton, O., had recently joined Joe Smith, 
and was a leading force in the Mormon Church. 
The history of Rigdon is somewhat interesting. 
From being a Regulkr Baptist, and no doubt honest 
in his convictions that immersion was the only 
baptism and the true way of following Christ, he 
had, in due time, in urging this tenet, carried it 
so far that he made it, with Alex. Campbell, an 
essential to salvation. He left the Baptists, there- 
fore, and became a follower of Alex. Campbell ; in 
other words, he became a Disciple, or Bible Chris- 
tian. In this capacity he appeared in Geauga 
County, and carried several Baptist Churches 
almost bodily over to the Disciples' doctrines, 
among which were the Baptist Churches of Kirt- 
land and Chardon. The next step in the line 
of baptism, he now having beconie an adherent 
of Joe Smith, was to baptize for the dead, that 
being one of the Mormon doctrines. It seemed 
to me and others that this was running baptism 
into the ground. Be this as it may, Mr. Rigdon 
was an able man, a powerful preacher and a ready 
controversialist. It was through his labors that 
large accessions were made to the Mormon Church. 
I do not think, however, that Mr, Rigdon ever 



224 REMINISCENCES. 

favored the idea of polygamy. In fact, so far as I 
know, this matter of polygamy made a division in 
the Mormon Church. Those who opposed it fol- 
lowed Rigdon, and those who favored it, Joe 
Smith. The doctrine was first broached in Kirt- 
land by the revelation of Joe Smith, with reference 
to the daughter of one of the old inhabitants of 
Kirtland, who was sealed to Joe as his spiritual 
wife. It was not the prevalent doctrine, nor gen- 
erally received as binding upon other persons than 
those who were called by a distinct revelation, the 
first of whom was Joe Smith himself. This tenet 
has gained strength from that time down to the 
present, when it is now made an essential belief 
of those in good standing in the Mormon Church. 

Before Rigdon separated himself from Smith, 
the Church had established a bank, issued consid- 
erable amounts of paper money and purchased 
a number of farms in the immediate neighborhood 
of the temple, among which was my uncle David 
Holbrook's farm, of about two hundred acres, 
purchased at the rate of ;^400 per acre. The 
Mormons paid my uncle about ^10,000 down, in 
merchandise, and took possession of the farm. 

Many other members of the Congregational 
Church, besides uncle David, sold their farms to 
the Mormons. The result was a very general 
breaking up of Kirtland society. A committee 
was sent out by the Kirtland people, consisting of 
the Rev. John L. Tomlinson, my cousin George 
Smith, and myself, to prospect for a good site for 



EXPERIENCES IN KIRTLAND. 225 

a new settlement. We started on horseback and 
traveled through the southern part of the State 
for some four or five weeks, but found no location 
that we thought would meet all the demands of the 
friends in making a new settlement. We were 
best pleased with the Mad River Valley, in the 
vicinity of Urbana, and concluded to report 
favorably of that section of country. It was ad- 
mitted by the citizens that milk sickness prevailed 
there to some extent. When our report was re- 
ceived, the price of lands and the possibility of 
sickness deterred the Kirtland people from mak- 
ing further investigation in that direction ; but 
other parties were sent out into Indiana, and it 
was found that Booneville, Ind., offered stronger 
inducements,' considering the nature of the soil, 
the abundance of water, the price of land, and 
the facilities for market, than any other locality. 

My uncle, without investigating for himself, 
concluded to move to Booneville. I was sent, in 
charge of his family, his wife and four young 
children, overland, with horse and wagon, while 
he, in possession of the goods, should go down 
the Ohio River and meet us at Booneville. 

My experiences in this overland journey from 
Kirtland, O., to Booneville, Ind., were quite novel 
and sufficiently varied. We carried our provisions, 
bedding and cooking utensils in our wagon with us, 
stopping by the wayside at noon, or in such farm- 
houses at night as we could get accommodations in. 
Being from Kirtland, the place of the Mormons, 
15 



226 , REMINISCEN'CES. 

it was assumed, since that was all that was known 
of Kirtland in most places, that we were recreant 
Mormons, having had enough of them, and were 
making our escape. After a few days, in conse- 
quence of these suspicions, which seemed to be 
everywhere excited, v/e concluded to say what was 
true, that we had come from Geauga County, 
when inquired of The expenses of our journey 
were very trivial, while the incidents were in some 
cases rather amusing and exciting. On approach- 
ing Mt. Vernon, through a road winding about 
among the hills, we met a burly Irishman in a 
buggy. We turned up on the right side of the 
road to give him room to pass us. My cousin, 
who was driving, seems to have turned too far and 
the wagon went over, scattering cooking utensils, 
edibles and ourselves in a promiscuous melange 
down the hill. As we were gathering ourselves 
up, the five children of Mr. Chase came around 
the hill and the man saw them. Their family 
wagon, however, had not yet come in sight. The 
burly stranger, lifting his hands and eyes in won- 
derment, burst forth with : "My God! are these 
al-l the children of one couple?" There were 
about ten of the younger members of both fami- 
lies, counting myself. We made no satisfactory 
reply, being busy in gathering up our utensils and 
setting our wagon upright. He crowded by and 
left the family of ten children to take care of 
themselves. 

The last day before we reached our destination. 



EXPERIENCES IN KIRTLAND. 22/ 

we came into a settlement, some ten or fifteen 
miles north of Booneville, late in the afternoon. 
Making inquiries as to where we could get accom- 
modations for the night, we were told that there 
was a vacant cabin, that had been used for a school- 
house, about two miles further on. We were denied 
any accommodations in the place, and our only 
alternative was to proceed on our way, and find, 
if possible, a covering for the night. We found no 
school-house nor cabin. After proceeding several 
miles we concluded that it would be well for us to 
stop and do the best we could under the circum- 
stances. There was a drizzling rain, and it was 
sufficiently chilly, but we made ready for the night, 
taking the horses from the wagon ; the elder boys 
and myself, wrapping ourselves as well as we 
could, slept under the wagon. The rest of the 
family were lodged in the wagon, under cover. 
During the night we imagined we heard the bark- 
ing of wolves in the distance, but it did not mate- 
rially disturb our slumbers. But as morning 
approached we heard the crowing of roosters in 
the neighborhood and concluded that we must be 
near some human habitation. As soon as day 
dawned I started out in the direction of the indi- 
cations of humanity, and, passing through a nar- 
row portion of wood, soon found myself in a large 
open space, within which stood a very comfortable 
double cabin. The good people were astir and 
received me very cordially, and said that they felt 
that there was something unusual in the neighbor- 



228 REMIXISCENXES. 

hood, as the dog in the house was quite restless, 
but thinking it was not possible that any one 
would be out in such a night as that, they gave no 
further attention to the matter and passed the 
night as usual, but assured us if they had known 
of our being there they would have gone out and 
given us all the accommodations that their cabin, 
could offer. Securing whatever we needed for our 
morning repast, I returned and found my friends. 
After making our breakfast in the wagon, we 
started on, arriving at Booneville about ten o'clock 
Sabbath morning. 

TORNADO IN KIRTLAND. 

The Congregational Church in Kirtland had been 
raised from its foundations, and turned perhaps 
five degrees, and set down again, thus wrenching 
the frame badly, and shattering the walls to a con- 
siderable extent, and making it necessary to re- 
build the foundations, and replaster the walls. 
This tornado took place when I was living in 
Berea. " The first observation that I had of its ef- 
fect, was in coming up over the hills of South 
Kirtland, crossing the Chagrin River, where was a 
mill. It was a wonderful sight ; the contents of 
the milldam, including much of the dam itself, 
were carried from their location, in the course of 
the stream, up to the top of a neighboring hill, 
about lOO feet in height. As I passed on up the 
hill, over the road, the devastation of the tornado 
was evident in the prostration of fences, but more 



EXPERIENCES IN KIRTLAND. 229 

fiercely in an immense swath through an extended 
tract of forest. Apparently, a mighty giant had 
swung his scythe, passing through the forest, and 
cutting the trees about twenty feet from the 
ground over a breadth of about four rods and nearly 
a mile in length. The trees were cut off at this 
height, and in a very well-defined breadth, through 
this tract of wooded country. Not going near 
enough to sec what became of the trees thus 
severed by the mighty scythe, it was impossible 
to form any very definite idea of the character and 
extent of the destruction, other than could be seen 
in the distance. But it was a wonderful demon- 
stration, as I conceived, of the irresistible power 
of air in motion. This northern branch of the tor- 
nado passed over the church, lifting it from its 
foundation, and placing it as before described. 
On the opposite side of the street, leading to 
Kirtland Flats, stood a log cabin, consisting of the 
ordinary two rooms and a new addition of frame 
and clapboards. This addition had been used as 
a spare sleeping-room. In it was stored the out- 
fit of the daughter of Mr. Stannard, and all the 
wedding paraphernalia, waiting for the nuptials to 
take place, a day or two after the tornado visited 
them. The heavy log cabin seemed to have re- 
sisted the power of the wind, but the frame ad- 
dition was taken as if in a mighty fist, and whirled 
through the air in the direction of the tornado, 
sjending its clapboards, shingles, and the wedding 



230 REMINISCENXES. 

outfit over the country some rods in width and 
miles in continued extent. Some of these wed- 
ding ribbons and other habiUments were picked 
up along the line of the tornado, through a dis- 
tance of five to nine miles. No one happened to 
be in that part of the house at the time of the dis- 
aster, so that the young lady was on time for the 
ceremony, but whether she ever recovered any 
part of her outfit, or whether she purchased an- 
other, I never learned. The southern branch of 
this tornado, separating from this northern branch 
at the mill-pond and hill before spoken of, pro- 
ceeded in a southeastern direction, over the town- 
ship of Chester. It there accomplished no special 
destruction, but played some merry freaks with 
fences, plows, wagons, and a couple of damsels, 
who, being in the loft of the cabin, and noticing 
the destructive energy of the approaching storm, 
had thrown themselves upon a feather-bed, with 
the idea that the lightning would not strike them 
when protected by the non-conductor, feathers. 
They wci'e protected from ligJitning, but I was 
shown the cabin unroofed, and the neighboring 
apple-tree into which the young ladies were car- 
ried with their protecting apparatus, the feather- 
bed, and lodged both of them bodily among its 
branches. I was shown a long furrow, made by 
a plow, which had been taken up by the wind and 
carried, as if drawn by horses at full galop, the 
clods having been thrown, twisted and rolled sev- 



EXPERIENCES IN KIRTLAND. 23 I 

eral rods from the place where the plow had lifted 
them from the soil. It was not my fortune to 
witness this tornado in either of its branches. I 
have only described what I saw as the results of 
its tremendous work. 

This road over the Chagrin River, up over the 
hills, led me by Mr. Harvey Morse's. On a visit 
there one day, he took me out upon the brow of 
the hill, and, pointing to the valley, distant from 
the house fifty rods or more, showed a small stream 
where his father, as an early settler, had shot a 
couple of wolves. Being in the house one moon- 
light night, and the doors being open, they were 
annoyed by hearing moans of distress coming 
from this valley. As it continued some length of 
time, their curiosity was sufficiently excited to go 
out and see what was the trouble with the cattle 
pasturing in the valley. As they approached the 
brow of the hill they saw at once the cause of the 
distress. A yearling heifer was being driven 
across the valley, from hill to hill, through the 
water and mud of the stream, backward and for- 
ward, by a couple of wolves, that were biting and 
worrying her, attacking her at the rear, and then, 
turning about, biting her nose, driving her back 
and forth, until, when they discovered them, the 
heifer was so nearly exhausted that the wolves 
were ready to fall upon her as their prey. A rifle 
being secured, a good aim brought one of the 
wolves to the ground ; the other escaped for the 



232 REMINISCENCES. 

time being, but the heifer was so far exhausted 
and so badly wounded that she died before morn- 
ing. The other wolf was captured before many- 
days. These were the last of the wolves in that 
neighborhood. 



CHAPTER Xiri. 



EXPERIENCES WHILE IN MARLBOROUGH, OHIO. 

Before narrating my experiences in Marlbor- 
ough, I will give a few points in the character of 
the worthy people of that place. The country 
had been originally settled almost exclusively by 
Quakers. But in the commotion which came 
from the preaching of Elias Hicks, a large major- 
ity abandoned the orthodox usages and beliefs, 
and became much more liberal in their views and 
practices. From being Unitarians or Universal- 
ists, they passed to still more liberal views and be- 
came what were generally called " Comeouters, " 
separating themselves from all religious associa- 
tions and restraints. Thus, nearly all my patrons 
and friends in Marlborough were "Freethinkers," 
many of them avowed Atheists, A few of the 
less educated and intelligent were Methodists. 
"The Comeouters," as a class, were intelligent, 
well read, and, otherwise than in their religious 
beliefs, most excellent people. My two pupils, 
members of the board that called me to Marl- 
borough, expressed no religious beliefs of any 
kind. They were virtually Agnostics, although 
(233) 



234 REMINISCENCES. 

that term had not been invented at that time. 
The young people who were my pupils had grown 
up with little or no religious training, but with ex- 
cellent home culture otherwise. The Sabbath 
was only regarded as a day of amusement, of 
social enjoyment, or of labor. These explanations 
are perhaps necessary, in order that my experi- 
ences may be the better understood. 
( My object in taking this public school was, 
not that I might obtain a larger salary, but that I 
might prepare myself the better to train teachers 
for their work in public schools, either as subor- 
dinates or superintendents. ) I conceived that 
theory in this direction, without actual previous 
service in the work, would be of comparatively 
little value in training teachers. My contract 
with the Directors of the Marlborough School was 
merely a verbal one, of a very loose character. 
The only item mentioned in the contract was that 
I was to receive ^800 for nine months' service. All 
else was left undetermined. The Board of Di- 
rectors consisted of six members, all Freethink- 
ers excepting one, and he the husband of a Meth- 
odist lady. He generally attended church with 
her. When I arrived in town, I was met very cor- 
dially by the deputation, which had secured a 
comfortable tenement for our occupancy. After 
two or three days occupied in getting settled, I 
found myself in charge of a school of three de- 
partments, in a new house, tolerably well arranged, 
with comfortable furniture and pleasant surround- 



EXPERIENCES WHILE IN MARLBOROUGH, O. 235 

ings. I met the entire body of the pupils in the 
one large room and proceeded at once to organize, 
making use of whatever information I could derive 
from my pupils for this purpose. Before, how- 
ever, commencing my work, I read from my pocket 
Bible a short passage from the Sermon on the 
Mount, and offered a brief prayer. On passing 
from the school through the town at noon, I was 
met by one of the Directors, who told me that 
there was an intense excitement in town from the 
fact that one of the pupils had gone immediately 
after I had offered the prayer and reported at the 
center store that the new teacher had read the 
Bible and prayed in the new school-house. This 
was a little too much for the good people, who had 
cast off all such superstitions, and they were very 
much humiliated in the fact that their new build- 
ing, their school-house, should be so degraded by 
(to them) cast-off superstition and bygone igno- 
rance and darkness, as to have that old Hebrew 
mythology brought into their advanced mode of 
thinking and living. The excitement was tre- 
mendous. One man, more frenzied than the rest, 
tore off his coat and rolled up his sleeves, and 
rushed around town, declaring, amongst other 
things, that he would rather Holbrook, or any 
other teacher, would swear by the hour in the 
new building than to "pray" — "pray" five min- 
utes. The prayer did not occupy two minutes. 
My two friends, Wileman and Walton, came to 
advise with me about it. They did not seem to 



236 REMINISCENCES. 

be very much alarmed, but were rather anxious 
to know what I was going to do about it. I gave 
them no definite answer, but told them I thought 
it would come out all right ; we would call a meet- 
ing of the Board, and I would see what arrange- 
ment we could make that would be satisfactory to 
all parties. I believed they were reasonable men, 
and I told them they would find me a reasonable 
man, and I thought there would be no further 
trouble about it. "But, " they said, "there was a tre- 
mendous opposition to prayer in the new building; 
I could have it in the old building, but not the 
new." "All right," said I, "we will see about 
it." They smiled and left me, knowing that I 
would not give up the prayers. The meeting was 
called ; six members were present. The president, 
Mr. Wm. Morgan, a very earnest Freethinker and 
a most excellent and worthy citizen, was called to 
the chair. He hardly knew how to open the meet- 
ing, or to state its object, but requested that I 
would state, if I was willing, my views with regard 
to the religious exercises. I had previously 
thought the matter all out and knew precisely 
what ground I should take. It was simply this: 
That I would hold religious exercises for ten or 
fifteen minutes in the general school-room before 
the regular six hours of school duty, in my own 
time. That I would invite the students of the 
different departments to attend, but would not hold 
any one as derelict in any sense, if he did not 
attend. That I would provide a comfortable room 



EXPERIENCES WHILE IN MARLBOROUGH, O. 23/ 

during the religious exercises, which those pu- 
pils who chose not to attend, or whose parents 
preferred that they should not, might occupy and 
be comfortable. In stating these views to the 
Board, as I did very briefly, I reiterated that I 
held no pupil in any sense constrained to attend 
the religious exercises who did not wish to ; in 
fact, I should exclude any one from religious exer- 
cises if I received word from the parents that he 
or she wished the child not to attend. . With these 
remarks I sat down. Mr. Morgan remarked that 
he saw no objections to my claims as a religionist, 
as there was no coercion, no stigma, no penalty, in 
any sense, attached to any one for being absent 
from religious exercises. If he understood the 
new teacher, in everything^there was perfect lib- 
erty, and it was just the doctrine he was living up 
to, ; He thought the position I took was very 
reasonable, and if any member of the Board was 
not satisfied, and felt it his duty to contravene 
the exercises thus expressed and thus managed, 
he thought such an individual, instead of charging 
Mr. Holbrook with bigotry or narrow-mindedness, 
would feel that he himself was chargeable 
with the same state of feeling and judgment. 
Nothing more was ever said upon the subject in 
any meeting of the Board, but it was, I have no 
doubt, the subject of very general conversation 
throughout the families of the town. But the 
plan worked very pleasantly, as there was a most 
universal and prompt attendance of all the chil- 



238 REMINISCENCES. 

dren from all the families, even from that of the 
man who was so tremendously excited, and, so far 
as I could see, all seemed to approve and acknowl- 
edge the good moral influence of the religious ex- 
ercises. (_This position, with regard to the claims 
and duties of the religious teacher in his relations 
to his pupils, I have ever since maintained and in- 
culcated. In fact, I believe it is now very gen- 
erally adopted in all our public schools, y The 
teacher takes his own course in religious exercises, 
but it must be without restraint or penalty, and in 
the teacher's own time, and not in the regular six 
hours of school time. 

After the close of Mr. Morgan's remarks, I in- 
quired if there was any provision made for fuel or 
janitor. The secretary of the Board remarked 
that fuel had generally been provided by the 
Board in the form of cord-wood, and, so far as he 
knew, Mr. Henry Cocke had either cut the wood, 
or had given the students time to cut it for the 
stove, and that Mr. Cocke had also taken upon 
himself to sweep and dust the house, although he 
believed that the older girls sometimes dusted the 
house after Mr. C. swept. Mr. Cocke, being 
present, assented to the statement. I replied that 
I supposed I was hired for six hours a day, as was 
the usage in all schools, and that if, in the 
opinion of the Board, I could use the time to better 
advantage in sweeping and dusting, and in chop- 
ping wood — and I was a poor hand at all these 
operations — if, however, I could serve the Board 



EXPERIENCES WHILE IN MARLBOROUGH, O. 239 

better in this capacity than in attending to my 
classes, which sorely needed all my strength and 
efforts, I would do the best I could in either or 
both these capacities. This statement seemed to 
strike them humorously, and they at once voted 
to furnish me a janitor and coal for the stoves in 
the several rooms. So that matter was settled 
very amicably and satisfactorily. The point made 
by the secretary was, that Mr. Cocke had received 
only ^40 per month and had performed this extra 
service ; I received more than double that amount, 
it was no more than reasonable that I should per- 
form this, as he thought, necessary work. 

Before school on the second day, an orthodox 
Quaker, Mr. Watson, came to my house saying 
that he hardly supposed that I would grant his 
request, and yet he felt it necessary to give his 
testimony against the use of music in schools. I 
told him that I should not introduce music into the 
school until the Directors required it. His two 
little girls being in attendance, he said he had felt 
it his duty to express his preference, although it 
was more than he had expected, that I should com- 
ply with his request, and he was accordingly 
much gratified. 

Being about to leave, he remarked that his 
nephew. Highland Watson, had come home very 
much excited from school the night before. He 
had been a great friend of Mr. Cocke and thought 
Mr. C. an extraordinary mathemetician, and that 
hardly any man, especially the new teacher, would 



240 REMINISCENXES. 

be able, in any sense, to fill the place of Mr. 
Cocke, especially as a teacher of mathematics. 
But Highland had gone home more than gratified, 
stating that they had a much better mathematician 
than Mr. C. in the new teacher. "Why," said 
he, ' ' that little teacher, Holbrook, has more math- 
ematics in his little finger than Cocke in his whole 
body." I found the Watsons, with several other 
orthodox Quaker families, always firm supporters, 
and very helpful and reliable friends. I never aft- 
erward found, among all the contending religious 
views of the people of Marlborough, any objec- 
tions, expressed or implied, to my course in car- 
rying out my religious convictions in school or in 
society. I presented my letter to the Methodist 
Church and tried to do my duty as a member of 
that organization always, so far as I could without 
being offensive in maintaining my ground. The 
change that came over the externals of the young 
people, in their regard for the Sabbath, in their 
(at least, outward) respect for religion and relig- 
ionists, was very marked, and, I believe, was felt 
to be a decided improvement in all their social 
gatherings and in their general conduct. 

At one time, being called to "Father Wile- 
man's " to participate in a party gotten up in honor 
of an old teacher of theirs, Joseph Gilbert, a de- 
cided " Comeouter, " and an outspoken infidel, I 
was accosted by him, while sitting in the parlor 
in the midst of a company of twenty or thirty 
persons, with the remark: "Alfred Holbrook, 



EXPERIENCPIS WHILE IN MARLBOROUGH, O. 24I 

it is one of the most mysterious things, that a 
man of your intelligence, of your extensive read- 
ing, and your knowledge of the world and of 
the evils which have sprung from religious 
beliefs and credulity, that you can have any 
patience or belief in that miserable old He- 
brew book called the Bible." Mr. Gilbert, after 
these words, awaited my reply. All were inter- 
ested, to say the least, in what he said, and were 
waiting anxiously no doubt for my defense ; all 
being in sympathy with him rather than me. Wait- 
ing until I could control my feelings a little before 
I made a reply, I turned to the venerable mother 
of these young people, my pupils and friends,, 
saying: "Mrs. Wileman, I have known these 
children of yours for many years, as pupils and 
friends, and I have respected and loved them as- 
sincere and truthful and worthy of all confidence ; 
and, now, may I be permitted to ask you if 
they have not received these qualities from the 
training in the Bible given them by their 
mother?" "It is true, Alfred Holbrook, that 
these children have received their ideas of truth, 
and honor and virtue from the blessed old book." 
I was congratulated by the smiles and plaudits of 
all present. Mr. Gilbert never afterward troubled 
me with his aspersions or his doubts. 

My first difficulty with my pupils was in the 
matter of dancing. These young Quaker people, 
when they had broken loose from Quaker re- 
straints, went to the other extreme of almost 
16 



242 KEMINISCENXES. 

recklessness in their amusements. Sabbath days 
and evenings and other evenings were fre- 
quently given to dancing and rollicking. After 
the first novelty of the school had, in a meas- 
ure subsided, I found that one or two days a 
week the older students came to school tired, lit- 
tle inclined to study, irresponsive and cross. In- 
quiring into the recurrence of this state of affairs, 
on the part of the leading and best pupils in the 
school, I obtained from their own confession that, 
in every such case, it resulted from their dancing 
nearly all night. Several times I made serious 
appeals to their sense of duty, their self-respect, 
and their very earnest previous endeavors for the 
improvement of their privileges, and to their 
kindly feeling toward me, which had ever exhib- 
ited itself But in spite of their promises of re- 
fraining from the practice, new occasions would 
call for breaking down their resolutions, and danc- 
ing became more and more an evil. In reflecting 
upon this state of things, and finding that the res- 
olutions of the young people were not sufficient 
to hold them, and, in fact, that they were trail- 
ing themselves to make resolutions and break 
them, and thus, to immorality and untruthful- 
ness, I concluded I could no longer be a party to 
this line of moral degradation. One morning at 
general exercises, after I had dismissed the pupils 
of the other departments to their rooms respect- 
ively, I told those who were present in the high 
school that I had something to say, and I wished 



EXPERIENCES WHILE IN MARLBOROUGH, O. 243 

to hold their attention for a few minutes before 
they commenced their regular work. My remarks 
were these : "Now, young ladies and gentlemen, 
you are well aware that I respect you, and that I 
hke you all ; there is not an exception ; there is no 
one among you who has treated me otherwise 
than with the kindest feelings and attention ; for 
all of which, as a stranger, I have ever felt, and 
-do now feel, most grateful. For the first few 
weeks I enjoyed my position here as teacher, and 
felt that I was doing, or helping you to do your- 
selves, a great and good work, and I can not but 
feel that you have enjoyed your school work under 
my administration. Of late, however, my work 
and your efforts have been so frequently marred 
and defeated, in a large measure, by your lack of 
sustained interest, and by frequent breaks in 
your progress of study by the practice of dancing, 
that I have concluded that it is not safe nor right 
for me to remain longer a party to this wrong 
which you, in spite of me, are inflicting upon 
your physical, intellectual and moral being. I 
have therefore concluded to resign, and shall 
offer my resignation to-day, to take place at the 
end of the term. I don't think I ought to hazard 
my reputation under such circumstances, and impair 
my future usefulness by a failure which I see is im- 
pending in our relations to each other." I sat down. 
Mr. James Morgan, the eldest, perhaps, and most 
respected of the pupils, presently rose and said 
something like this: "Mr. Holbrook, I don't 



244 REMINISCENXES. 

want you to leave us, and I know that it is not the 
wish of any of your pupils that you should leave 
us. We are very sorry that we have brought 
you to this resolution ; we have no one to 
blame but ourselves. Our attendance on 
dances has been very wrong, and we freely ac- 
knowledge it has been a great drawback upon our 
interest in school and upon our lives. We have 
never intended to go counter to your wishes, or 
in any way to bring reproach upon your charac- 
ter or our own success. But more recently cir- 
cumstahces have turned up that we did not foresee^ 
where we felt that the social claim must be at- 
tended to, and one claim has Led to another and 
another, till this matter has come to be the evil 
that it is. And I, for one, will do anything you 
want me to do, and I think every pupil here will 
say the same, for we don't want this thing to go 
on. We mean to do better." One young lady 
arose and expressed herself in the same manner, 
and that seemed to be the feeling of all who were 
in attendance that morning. " Well," said I, " I 
will draw up a very simple pledge, and if you are 
willing to sign it, I shall be willing to remain. But 
a pledge, as I have found, is of very little force 
unless attended with a sufficient penalty to make 
the violation of the pledge somewhat of an annoy- 
ance and disgrace. I will propose this penalty ; 
whether it will meet your views, I do not know : 
That, in case any one feels it necessary to engage 
in dancing, or to be present at a dance, he will 



EXPERIENCES WHILE IN MARLBOROUGH, O. 245 

voluntarily absent himself from school the next 
two school days." One young lady suggested 
one day would be sufficient. " No," said I, "I 
do not think that would beany penalty at a:ll, for 
you are good for nothing one whole day anyhow." 
So it was unanimously agreed to sign their names 
to the pledge and the penalty. Good order and 
diligence were restored and the classes went on as 
vigorously as could be desired. 

In the course of time, however, one young gen- 
tleman in attendance, who had been visiting cous- 
ins in the country, found it necessary to join a 
dance which was gotten up especially for his enter- 
tainment. He reported the fact, stating that he 
could hardly courteously decline to be present at 
the dance, or to engage with the young folks of the 
neighborhood, since the party was given for him. 
He, however, left it for me to decide whether, under 
the circumstances, he was not excusable for viola- 
tion of the rules. Sympathizing most heartily 
with the young man, and approving his honest 
manly report, I took it into consideration whether, 
under the circumstances, it would be safe to set 
aside the rule. Finally, however, I concluded 
that it would be best for the school, even for the 
young man himself, to let the law take its course. 
After two days of absence he returned and 
thanked me for my integrity, and said he believed 
I had taken the best course, and that he fully ap- 
proved of my decision. Dancing in term time 
never afterward troubled us. I ought, perhaps, 



246 REMINISCENCES. 

to relate here, that Prof. T. C. Mendenhall, a boy- 
then about nine years of age, was one of my most 
promising pupils. He advanced rapidly, taking 
his place with pupils much older than himself. 
He was especially interested in practical scientific 
work. It was during the second year, I think, of 
my superintendency in Marlborough, that I intro- 
duced analytical chemistry, having obtained from 
New York a complete set of analytical apparatus 
and tests. With this advanced class of scholars I 
organized also an engineering class, having obtained 
the requisite instruments for that purpose ; also a 
theodolite, a transit and a level, all in one instru- 
ment, together with other necessary apparatus for 
exact and practical work. The school rapidly in- 
creased with students from abroad. The old town 
hall, that had become dilapidated and was neg- 
lected for years, was repaired and utilized for a 
general school-room ; in fact, for chapel purposes. 
These accommodations being filled, the M. E. 
Church was rented and brought into use during 
the third year. All the accommodations were 
crowded, and, perhaps, I felt more encouraged in 
the fact that the tuition in our school was ^5 for a 
term of eleven weeks, while at Mt. Union College, 
eight miles distant, the tuition was only ;^3 a term. 
It was during the third year, in the summer 
vacation, that I organized a Scientific Institute 
and had the satisfaction of a large and respectable 
attendance of the leading teachers of that part of 
the State. The brief services of Hon. Thomas 



EXPERIENCES WHILE IN MARLBOROUGH, O. 24/ 

Harvey and President Loren Andrews were se- 
cured, but the rest of the work, the instruction, I 
performed myself. The work of the Scientific 
Institute was chiefly of a practical, scientific char- 
acter, involving the construction and use of appa- 
ratus in the different sciences, and training- in 
lecturing with apparatus in hand. Charles S. 
Royce was in attendance, also David Parsons, 
since Deputy State Superintendent of Michigan. 
Also other teachers of considerable note and repu- 
tation, among them Hon. John A. Norris, after- 
ward State Commissioner of Schools in Ohio. Dr. 
Thomas, a physician of the town, organized a 
class in anatomy, physiology and hygiene. The 
class consisted of some eight persons, of whom 
Abram Wileman, his wife and sister, were pupils, 
also Mrs. Holbrook and Mrs. Markham. Mrs. 
Markham was a granddaughter of Rev. Dr. 
Coles, formerly pastor of the Congregational 
Church at Austinburg, Ohio, and a widow of re- 
markably fine physical development, of excellent 
education, of vigorous mental ability and of win- 
ning address. She was preparing herself here 
to lecture to ladies on physiology and hygiene, 
was a most diligent and successful student, and 
gave promise of being an efficient and popular 
lecturer. Soon after she came to Marlborousfh, 
there were spiritual demonstrations in connection 
with her as medium, which continued as long as 
she was in Marlborough, with endless variations 
and with remarkable and inexplicable phenomena. 



248 REMINISCENCES. 

It must be remembered in this connection that 
Abram Wileman beHeved in no spirit, devil, god, 
or anything of the kind. Now the first cadaver 
used in the course of their anatomical studies 
was reported to be the body of a frail girl 
from Cincinnati. The demonstrations of her 
spirit, according to all those who witnessed 
them or were disturbed by them, were always 
of a humorous character, and were related to 
my wife and me as interesting and funny. 
For instance, when the demonstrations had be- 
come frequent and somewhat annoying, Dr. 
Thomas called Dr. Whiting, from Canton, 
also Dr. Ackley, from Cleveland, to hold a con- 
sultation upon the spiritual manifestations. They 
were met in their applications in this case, in every 
instance, with some evasive answer, the answer 
always being in raps, given by calling the letters of 
the alphabet in order. After many such evasions 
and humorous rejoinders. Dr. Thomas said : 
"Now, Ann, you have been foohng us enough; 
give us something sensible, won't you?" She 
rapped affirmatively, then commenced rapping 
again in compliance with her promise. As they 
called the alphabet down they came to these let- 
ters successively in answer to her raps, "s-o-m-e- 
t-h-i-n-g-s-e-n-s-i-b-1-e. " 

While these three gentlemen were sitting around 
a table, a pebble came flying through the back win- 
dow, which was open, and, indirectly in its course, 
lodged upon the snuffer tray. This was about all 



EXPERIENCES WHILE IN MARLBOROUGH, O. 249 

the satisfaction that the three learned gentlemen 
derived from the spirit of Ann. 

Several times my wife and I tried to be pres- 
ent when these manifestations were going on, 
but were never successful in witnessing them 
in any of their varied forms. One evening, 
having been invited by Hannah Wileman 
and Mrs. Markham to call, we spent the evening 
very quietly and pleasantly in the usual conversa- 
tion for such occasions. At nine o'clock we with- 
drew and went home. The next morning, while 
we were at breakfast, Hannah Wileman came to 
our house very much excited, stating that before 
we had come into their room, the night before, 
things were flying about in every direction ; brushes, 
candlesticks and various other articles passing 
around the room, always missing them. But 
from the time they had heard us at the gate, to 
the time we left and shut the gate of the front 
yard, there were no manifestations, but the mo- 
ment the gate was closed disturbances began and 
continued all night. They retired at a late hour. 
The sittting room was also their bedroom. 
The lights being extinguished, their bedclothes 
were suddenly jerked off, and a small riding-whip, 
which they thought was hanging in the hall, was 
applied rather lightly to their unprotected persons. 
Springing out of bed and lighting the candle, 
they found the riding-whip lying on the carpet. 
With very considerable trepidation they again 
placed themselves in position for repose, but 



250 REMINISCENCES. 

scarcely had they recHned when the clothes were 
snatched off again and a ewer of water seemed 
to be suspended over them, and the water thrown 
quite all over them and the bed. Mrs. Markham 
being, as she claimed, the cause of all this trouble^ 
concluded she would retire to another room, leav- 
ing Hannah to quiet rest for the night. She de- 
clared that no sooner had she placed herself under 
the bedclothes in the chamber above, than she 
was suddenly taken up bodily and set down on 
the floor and a large basket of about five bush- 
els capacity was thrown over her head. She 
screamed for help. The doctor, coming in about 
this time from visiting a patient, released her, and 
no more spirits troubled them that night. The 
spirits seemed to stand somewhat in awe of him. 

These last performances were from the spirit of 
Sallie, the second subject for dissection. She was 
a spiteful thing. The dissection had proceeded 
as far as taking the brain out of the skull, and ex- 
amination of the muscles of the right arm, which had 
been previously removed from the body. Mrs. 
Markham and Hannah occupied the doctor's sitting 
room at night as a bedroom, the doctor spending 
most of his time in his office, and sleeping in a room 
contiguous. About twelve o'clock one night Han- 
nah was wakened by a feeling of chilliness over her 
face. Opening her eyes, she discovered a phos- 
phorescent hand extending over her. This hand 
and arm were attached to the phosphorescent body 
of the recently arrived cadaver — the figure as it 



EXPERIENCES WHILE IN MARLBOROUGH, O. 25 I 

was left in the dissecting-room the evening before. 
The frightened Hannah roused Mrs. Markham 
who witnessed the same phenomenon. Both 
jumped out of the window upon the adjoining 
porch, and waded through the snow, barefooted 
and in their nightclothes, along the streets to 
the other part of town, to Abram Wileman's house. 
Awakening them with considerable difficulty from 
sound sleep, they were admitted and spent the rest 
of the night in peace. The next morning, the 
body, mutilated as before described, was found in 
its place as if nothing had happened. This last 
subject, Sallie, appeared of a very different dispo- 
sition from Ann, the first one. All of Sallie's 
manifestations were annoying, vicious, and many 
of them malicious. Mrs. Markham herself always 
professed that she had no control over these spirits ; 
that she did not desire their presence, and they an- 
noyed her a thousand-fold more than they could 
anybody else. She, however, used them occa- 
sionally for mediums in communicating with her 
deceased husband. These communications, so far 
as she revealed them, were always of a pleasant 
and consoling character. 

In connection with Mrs. Markham, Miss Betsy 
Coles, her aunt, had com^munications with her 
father. Dr. Coles. She was induced one day, she 
said, to take her pencil in hand, holding it over 
the paper, and leaving her hand to be guided by 
spiritual influences that claimed to be those of her 
father. His communication resulted in his reiter- 



252 REMINISCENCES. 

ating all his orthodox views as preached for years, 
and exhorting his daughter to pursue the even 
tenor of her way in her religious views, assuring 
her that the best that any mortal could experience 
in this world, of knowledge of spiritual things and 
the joy of acceptance with God, was but as the 
faintest dawn of the commg day, when compared 
with his condition in his heavenly abode. I saw 
and read this communication. Miss Betsy assured 
me that the handwriting, although loose and un- 
certain, very much resembled that of her father 
when living. Now, all these friends, the two 
Wilemans, Mrs. Markham and Miss Betsy Coles 
were persons whom I would believe on any other 
subject whatever. The Wilemans especially, I 
had known for years as worthy, reliable young 
people. But so far as these spiritual manifesta- 
tions are concerned, they were truly mysterious, 
unaccountable, and to me, unreasonable, on any 
other theory than that they were the real work of 
evil spirits. 

After leaving Marlborough and making a short 
and successful tour of lecturing, Mrs. Markham 
was married again, and so far as I know, was not 
further disturbed by spirit communications. 

It was while my Scientific Institute was going 
on at Marlborough, and Hon. T. W. Harvey and 
Loren Andrews were taking dinner with me, that 
Mrs. Dr. Speer, of Massillon, was also an invited 
guest. The dinner being nearly concluded, Mr. 
Harvey withdrew somewhat from the table. Mr. 



EXPERIENCES WHILE IN MARLBOROUGH, O. 253 

Andrews said: "Well, Tom, now for k cigar!" 
Mrs. Speer then addressed Mr. Harvey: "Mr. 
Harvey, are you aware that my son Henry is 
smoking again?" "No, madam, I have not 
noticed it." "Well, he is, and it is in spite of 
everything that his father and mother can do or 
say to prevent it. What do you suppose was his 
last argument, after he had promised me faithfully 
that he would smoke no more ?" "I don't know, 
indeed, madam." "Well, it was simply this: 
If Mr, Harvey smokes and it does not hurt him, 
I don't see why it should hurt me. And the boy 
is so nervous and irritable, and has become so un- 
manageable, that we feel that we need your influ- 
ence to aid us in saving our son." " Well, Mrs. 
Speer, I will think about it," Mr. Harvey said, 
turning away laughing. When he had left the 
room, Mrs. Speer said that her son Henry, being 
naturally very nervous and excitable, had become 
a perfect slave to tobacco, that his health had 
been very much impaired, and his feeble con- 
stitution seemed to have been almost wrecked, 
and that both father and mother had used every 
influence, by way of penalties and rewards, of 
exhortation and tears, and every endeavor and in- 
ducement which could be brought to bear upon 
the boy to save him. This last stroke seemed to 
be a little more than she could bear. The equa- 
nimity with which Mr. Harvey seemed to take 
her statement of the case did not in the least re- 
lieve her mind. What the result was, with the 



254 REMINISCENXES. 

boy, I am not able to say, but all who know Mr. 
Harvey, know that it did not induce him to set a 
better example afterward. 

One night, just as we were about to retire, there 
came a knock at our door. I found a stranger 
seeking admittance, a boy about eighteen years 
old, quite haggard and wan, and, as I judged, terri- 
bly homesick. He told us his name was John 
Norris. My wife inquired if he had had supper. 
He had not ; so she prepared him some supper, 
and we offered him a bed, expecting to see him 
in better plight in the morning. The young man 
entered school, remained with us two terms, was 
very diligent, made excellent progress, support- 
ing himself partly by doing chores and odd jobs 
for one and another. At the end of this time, he 
was prepared for county examination, and engaged 
a school in the neighborhood of Marlborough. He 
taught a year or more. Under the influence of Mr. 
Andrews, who had formed an acquaintance with 
him at Marlborough, he was induced to go to 
Kenyon, of which institution Mr. Andrews was 
then President. Proceeding to Kenyon imme- 
diately on the close of his school, he had six 
months left in which to prepare himself to enter 
the Freshman Class of '54. 

After the war was over, in '65, Mr. Norris was 
Candidate for the Commissionership of Schools in 
Ohio. He visited us in Lebanon. Sitting at our 
table, and addressing himself to Mrs. Holbrook, 
he said: "Madam, you are but little aware of 



EXPERIENCES WHILE IN MARLBOROUGH, O. 255 

what you did for me, that saddest night of my 
life, when I went with so much timidity to your 
door, not knowing what to do, or where else to 
go. I had run away from home, my mother being 
cognizant of the fact, and my father opposing my 
desire and purpose to acquire an education. I 
had heard of the Marlborough school, and thought 
perhaps I might be able to support myself in at- 
tending school there; and hence, with but little 
money in my pocket which my moth&r furnished 
me, and with a determined purpose, my small 
fund being exhausted, I reached your door. The 
sympathy, encouragement and kindness of your 
reception, and the interest you at once took in my 
case, was really my first start in life." Turning 
to me he said: "I want to tell you, Mr. Hol- 
brook, how the impetus I received in the twenty- 
two weeks that I was with you in Marlborough 
enabled me to obtain my education in Kenyon, 
in one-half the usual time. 

"When I went to Kenyon, I was very cordially 
received by President Andrews, who informed 
me that I had only six months in which to com- 
plete the course, which, in the curriculum, required 
two years. Being determined to accomplish this 
within the given time, I set myself at work to do 
it. At the examination for admission, I presented 
myself as a candidate. Passing tolerably well, I 
was informed that I could not be admitted, since 
I had not spent the requisite time in the prepara- 
tory school, one year being the least possible time 



256 REMINISCENCES. 

for admission ; Mr. Andrews, however, took up 
my case and argued with the faculty. He being- 
the only member of the faculty who was not a col- 
lege graduate, thought it would be bad economy 
to send off a likely young man who could be ad- 
mitted to any other college on examination with- 
out reference to the time he had spent in preparing; 
the very fact that I had prepared myself in six 
months, being, he thought, sufficient evidence of 
my ability to sustain myself in the course. He 
stated also that he would give me a letter of intro- 
duction to any college which I might wish to 
enter, and that, according to his views, I would 
be an ornament to any institution that I chose to 
select. These arguments, with others, induced the 
faculty at last to vote to receive me as a Freshman. 
During that year, besides keeping up with the 
Freshman Class, I took the studies of the Sopho- 
more year, hiring a Senior student to hear my reci- 
tations. At the end of the Freshman year, I 
presented myself as a candidate for the Junior 
year, and went through the examinations credita- 
bly, as the faculty admitted, but was refused ad- 
mission to the Junior Class, some members of the 
faculty stating that such an irregularity would 
derogate very much from the integrity of their 
college curriculum. Mr. Andrews again came to 
my relief, saying as before, that he would send 
me with a letter of recommendation to Hudson, 
the institution that I had selected, provided I 
could not be retained here, and he knew that I 



EXPERIENCES WHILE IN MARLBOROUGH, O. 257 

would be received there on his recommendation, 
as well as on examination, if they chose to exact 
it. I was again permitted to break in upon the 
regular college routine, and was received as a 
student the second year into the Junior class. 
During the Junior year, I took not only the studies 
in the curriculum for that year, but all the studies 
of the Senior year, and in the final examinations 
found my grades rather above the average of those 
who had been engaged six years in the ordinary 
course at Kenyon. The faculty, except the Presi- 
dent, were fully determined that they would not 
graduate me. No expostulations or arguments 
offered by the President could move the worthy 
faculty from their position. President Andrews, 
however, was not to be overcome by the faculty 
in their what seemed to him unreasonable course. 
He brought the matter before the Board of 
Trustees, in the presence of the faculty. The case 
was fully "argued, and I had the satisfaction of 
learning from President Andrews, that there was 
a unanimous vote on the part of the Board to con- 
fer upon me the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Thus, 
Mr. Holbrook, through the methods of study 
which I derived from your instruction in Marl- 
borough, during twenty-two weeks, I was able to 
accomplish my course of six years in two years 
and a half My application proved none too 
severe for my health, and I am satisfied that any 
industrious boy in college can accomplish more 
than twice as much as he ordinarily does, and 
17 



258 REMINISCENCES. 

greatly to the advantage of his health and morals. " 
It was this statement of Mr. Norris that led me 
to establish a full college course in the Normal 
School, occupying two years and a half, rather 
than five or six years, according to the ordinary 
curriculum of colleges. ' 

Bartley Gilbert was" an intelligent and well-to-do 
farmer, in the neighborhood of Marlborough, con- 
nected with many of the leading Quaker or 
" Comeouter " families in the township. He had 
long previously taken a leading position in opposi- 
tion to all claims of religion, and yet, so far as I 
know, was otherwise a good citizen, a kind neigh- 
bor and an active philanthropist. It happened, 
one dark, drizzly evening, as he was passing to 
the stable, looking after his stock, that he noticed 
a stranger leaning over the gate of the lane lead- 
ing to the house. As he passed back from the 
barn, the stranger still continued standing there, 
and Gilbert, going down to the gate, a distance of 
some rods, found a man, with one of his feet 
wrapped up in cloth, and otherwise somewhat 
dilapidated. When addressed, he said he was on 
his way to Cleveland from Pittsburg. His money 
giving out at Limaville, he had been compelled to 
take to his feet, and now, not being able to walk 
further, he had stopped where he was, not know- 
ing where to go nor what to do. Gilbert kindly 
invited the tramp to his house, furnishing him 
comfortable entertainment. In the morning, the 
man was found to be sick and somewhat delirious. 



EXPERIENCES WHILE IN MARLBOROUGH, O. 259 

In his wandering talks, he seemed to be address- 
ing now one friend, and now another, making fre- 
quent allusions to "Lord" this, and "Lady" that, 
and divers other persons of the nobility of En- 
gland. Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert attended carefully 
to his wants, provided medical advice, and nursed 
the stranger through two or three weeks of sick- 
ness. On recovering, in answer to their questions, 
he said that he was a younger son of a noble 
father in England, and that he had been sent to 
America to enlarge and improve his education by 
travel. He had stopped in Reading, Pa., for 
some days, and while witnessing the pouring of 
iron in the iron-works of that place, one of the 
vessels containing molten metal had fallen, and 
the iron had been thrown upon his boot, burning 
his foot terribly. His funds, he said, were in 
Cleveland, and under such conditions that it was 
necessary that he should go there in person in 
order to obtain them. The Gilberts assured him 
that he could remain with them until he was able 
to travel, and that they would furnish him the nec- 
essary means when he chose to leave for Cleve- 
land. They introduced him to their friends in the 
neighborhood, and at length he was brought to 
visit the public schools. I treated the gentle- 
man with ^11 possible courtesy, but from the 
first was led to believe that he was an impostor, 
and that he was receiving the kindness of these 
— the comeouter friends — under false pretenses. 
My suspicions were met with kindly but deter- 



26o REMINISCENCES. 

mined opposition by those who were entertaining 
the stranger. Under one pretext and another, 
he remained in the neighborhood several weeks, 
being entertained by one and another of these 
worthy families, and being supplied with money 
for various purposes. Some pretexts at last being 
found to be inconsistent with his first representa- 
tions, excited the suspicion of Mrs. Gilbert. 
When he was absent one day, she took occasion 
to examine his satchel, the only baggage he 
brought with him. Whether she found it locked 
or not, I do not know, but the only contents she 
found were an old pair of pants ; a bill for the pair, 
as it seemed, which he had on, and a very meager 
set of cobbler's tools. When he returned, she 
questioned him very rigorously with regard to his 
statements, which had seemed inconsistent with 
each other, and inconsistent with his baggage. He 
still maintained that his representations were in the 
main correct, and that he had learned from his 
correspondence that the money which should 
have been forwarded to Cleveland, was sent to 
Buffalo. The Gilberts being unwilling to furnish 
him more, for they had already lent him between 
^200 and ;^300, Dr. Brooks, my next neighbor, 
furnished him ;^50 with which to reach Buffalo, 
there to find funds to liquidate his indebtedness to 
his friends in Marlborough. But no money was 
received as he had promised, and when Dr. Brooks 
wrote him at Buffalo, he received in reply a very 
impudent, insulting and provoking attack upon 



EXPERIENCES WHILE IN MARLBOROUGH, O. 26l 

Dr. Brooks and all the other comeouter friends 
for their greenness in being thus imposed upon in 
the manner they had been, by a man of so little 
education and such meager powers as himself. 
The result of this misapplication of benevolent 
feeling from these worthy families was such, that 
Mrs. Gilbert declared that she didn't know that 
she would be able ever again to trust any human 
being who appealed to her good feelings for aid. 

During my third year in Marlborough, my 
salary having been advanced from $8oo to ^i,ooo, 
I received an invitation to take the Superintend- 
ency of the public schools in Salem, Ohio, with 
an offer of ;^ 1,200 salary. Feeling still that super- 
intendency was not my calling, and a more ex- 
tensive experience in this work was needed, in 
order that I might be able to experiment in this 
field and carry my various theories into practice 
for future use in training teachers, I accepted, in 
spite of the many remonstrances and entreaties of 
my Marlborough friends. Another reason, per- 
haps, for my preferring to go to Salem was, that 
the accommodations for students in Marlboroueh 
were all filled to their extreme capacity, and there 
was no further opportunity for the school to grow 
from home or foreign patronage. With much 
reluctance, therefore, I concluded to leave my 
many friends and very agreeable and successful 
work in Marlborough. 

During my last winter in Marlborough I at- 
tended, in company with my wife, the State 



262 REMINISCENCES. 

Teachers' Convention, in Columbus, Ohio, Such, 
worthies as Dr. A. D. Lord, Mr. Andrews and 
Marcellus Cowdrey, were then the admitted lead- 
ers of educational affairs in Ohio, and it must cer- 
tainly have been a satisfaction to bring together by 
their personal influence such a gathering of teach- 
ers, in midwinter, as assembled at that time and 
place. The questions under discussign were such 
as tended to the positive advantage of the school 
system, rather than to the personal advantage of 
the leaders and those confederated with them. The 
State Association then had the respect and confi- 
dence of legislators as well as of educators, being" 
controlled by such philanthropic spirits. After an 
interesting series of meetings, the Association ad- 
journed Friday night. We, that is, my wife and 
I, had been very hospitably entertained by Mr. 
and Mrs. Ayres, citizens of Columbus, and had 
made our arrangements to leave on Friday after- 
noon, in order to avoid traveling on the Sabbath. 
Having packed our trunks and removed them to 
the hall of our hospitable mansion, we sat waiting 
for the omnibus to take us to the depot, Mrs. and 
Mr. Ayres conversing with us as we waited. As 
the conversation proceeded and adieus were about 
to be said, I told my wife that 1 should not start 
for home that night. " Why not? " said she, " we 
are all ready ; what is the necessity for our stay- 
ing?" "Well, I don't think it best for us to go." 
"Why, husband, we shall not get home before 



EXPERIENCES WHILE IN MARLBOROUGH, O. 263 

Sunday, and we don't like to travel on Sunday." 
"Well, wife, I don't think I shall go." "Why, 
husband, are you crazy? We have made all our 
arrangements to go, and we must go ; the children 
at home will be expecting us." " Wife, I am not 
going, neither will you with my consent." Mrs. 
Ayres seconded my motion and begged us to re-, 
main ; she would be very glad to have us remain 
until next morning, at nine o'clock. But wife 
still insisted, and, using as much authority as I ever 
did or could, I told wife that she could not go ; if 
she did, she would have to .go alone. ".Well," 
said she, "if you are going to stay in this condi- 
tion, you need somebody to stay with and take 
care of you." "I guess, Mrs. Ayres, we have 
concluded to stay." 

The next morning we started on the first 
through train about nine o'clock, and had gone 
but a few miles when we learned by telegraph that 
the train which had left the previous night, on 
which we had designed to go home, had been 
thrown off the track about ten o'clock at night, 
and fourteen cars had been thrown alternately, 
one on one side, and another on the other side, of 
a high embankment, and all on board were terribly 
shaken, many seriously hurt, and some crippled 
for life, while two or three were supposed to be fa- 
tally injured. It is hardly necessary to say that wife 
and I could now understand why we could not em- 
bark the night before. After waiting some hours for 



264 REMINISCENCES. 

the clearing of the track, we proceeded on our 
way, arriving home safely on Sabbath morning, 
and found all at home in comfortable circumstances. 
It is unnecessary to add, we were very thankful for 
our providential escape. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



REMINISCENCES IN SALEM. 

In entering upon my work in Salem, I studied 
the ground carefully before the school commenced. 
Knowing that my predecessor was an able and pop- 
ular man, and had his stanch friends among my 
teachers, students and patrons, I conceived it 
necessary I should first establish my reputation as 
a teacher. I therefore took the position which my 
predecessor had left, as Principal of the High School, 
letting the other departments run as they had be- 
fore, without any special superintendency. My ex- 
perience with the classes of the High School was, to 
me, very satisfactory, and, so far as I could judge, 
popular both with the pupils and citizens. Near 
the close of the first term of twelve weeks, having 
now become familiar with the work to be done, 
and having determined that changes were neces- 
sary in order to place myself fully in charge of all 
the subordinate departments, I proposed to the 
Directors, in the first place, to give an extra hour 
to the school, provided they would allow me three 
hours a day for the distinct work of superintend- 
ency, I proposed, also, to change the entire order, 
(265) 



266 REMINISCENCES. 

as for occupancy, of the rooms of the different 
departments, and to put in the exclusive charge of 
every subordinate teacher about thirty pupils. The 
previous arrangement being that prevalent in most 
graded schools at that time, viz.: having an older 
teacher in charge of the large study room, with 
one hundred pupils, more or less, in the room, the 
teaching being performed partly by the teacher in 
charge of the room, but mostly by assistant 
teachers in other and smaller rooms. I found by 
careful attention to this arrangement that this plan 
had worked badly. The pupils made use of the 
fact of studying in one room with one teacher, 
and reciting in another room to another teacher, 
for shirking study and excusing themselves to both 
teachers. First, with the teacher in charge of 
the study room, that they had learned their lessons, 
and hence had time for amusement and idleness ; 
then to the teacher to whom the recitation was 
made, that the lesson was so hard that they could 
not get it ; and as there was no special arrangement 
made for preventing this deception, the pupils 
were difficult to manage in the study room and 
imperfect in their recitations. The plan was noth- 
ing more nor less than a training in deceit, idleness 
and wickedness generally. 

The first thing, then, that I proposed to do in 
my new arrangement was to put each subordinate 
teacher in charge of one room, with as many stu- 
dents as that one room could accommodate, and 
to arrange the grades so that each teacher should 



REMINISCENCES IN SALEM. 26/ 

have two or three grades to manage, as the case 
might be. Thus every teacher could be held ex 
ciusively responsible for all under her charge. 
This new arrangement of rooms and teachers re- 
quired an entirely new organization and new grad- 
ing. I found, however, that the rooms already in 
use, by proper management, could be so appropri- 
ated as to meet the demand/* The high school 
could be placed in the large study room and all the 
smaller rooms could be utilized for the subordin- 
ate grades. My next proposition to the Directors 
was that they should furnish me with an assistant 
in the high school, who should have charge of 
the order of the high school ; and my classes, which- 
ever I might select for my four hours a day, should 
be attended to in the adjoining room. So far as I 
was concerned, I was willing to trust the good 
order and diligence of the classes which I taught, 
to the care and charge of my assistant teacher, 
although I would hardly have been willing to put 
her in my position, being myself in charge, and 
having the classes recite to her in another room. 

These several propositions were accepted by the 
Board of Directors, and the new organization was 
accomplished, and I then entered upon my second 
term as superintendent. Before making my re- 
organization, I called the Directors together, and, 
with their aid and such as I could obtain from the 
teachers — they not being especially favorable to the 
new organization — I succeeded in making a new 
grading of the school of about 550 scholars, quite 



268 REMINISCENCES. 

to my satisfaction, placing each subordinate 
teacher in charge of those grades which she had 
somewhat irregularly taught under the previous 
arrangement. 

CI then made a careful calculation as to how often 
Could visit each class in the entire system. I 
found that I could spend half an hour, by very 
economical arrangement of my time, with each 
class, once in two weeks in all the departments, 
excepting the high school. In my first round of 
visits I asked each teacher to assign about as much 
in extent in the subject matter to each class as she 
thought they could well and thoroughly learn in 
two weeks, leaving this matter almost entirely to 
the teacher herself, informing her that in just two 
weeks from that time I would be present and spend 
half an hour in examining that class, saying also 
that I should expect her to be present at the ex- 
amination and to aid me in pursuing a course 
which would be fair and equitable for the pu- 
pils and satisfactory to herself. Now, I had 
known that such examinations had generally been 
carried on by Superintendents with the teacher 
not present, and I had found that it worked badly: 
the teacher was not properly represented by her 
pupils, and her plans under such circumstances 
were very likely to be misunderstood ; hence her 
work was not properly appreciated. One most im- 
portant object that I had in view by this arrange- 
ment was to secure the entire confidence and good 
will of my teachers. Not only so, I called the 



REMINISCENCES IN SALEM. 269 

teachers together Saturday morning and heard re- 
ports from them of the progress of their depart- 
ments and of the especial difficulties which they 
met in governing, and, especially, of all pupils 
who were wayward, or absent, or tardy, or lazy, 
and of any other matters that were of common in- 
terest, where I could, in any sense, be of help to 
any teacher or pupil. 

When my second round of supervising com- 
menced, having made a record of the precise ex- 
tent of the work to be done in every subject on 
which each class was to be examined, and pre- 
pared for the examination of almost every class 
ten questions, I took my seat at the desk, the 
class being on the recitation seats some distance 
away from me, and the teacher being seated also 
at the desk at my side, acting as my secretary. I 
called each pupil to the desk separately, and ex- 
amined him by propounding any one of the ten 
questions which I thought the most difficult, as 
involving a more perfect knowledge of the subject. 
My questions were given almost in a whisper, so 
that it was almost impossible for the other pupils 
on the recitation seat to hear either the question 
or the answer. The same ten questions, with the 
possibility of varying them, if I thought it neces- 
sary, answered the purpose for the examination 
of the whole class. In fact, I had showed my list 
of questions to the teacher just before I com- 
menced the examination, and requested her to 
make any changes or modifications which she 



2/0 REMINISCEN'CES. 

thought desirable. Suggestions were sometimes 
made by the teachers, and were invariably adopted 
by me. If the first question was answered cor- 
rectly and promptly, I frequently dismissed the 
pupil, and requested the teachers to grade that 
pupil in this examination lOO per cent. If, how- 
ever, the answer was incorrect, I gave the 
pupil another chance with another question, 
and if still not satisfactory, the pupil was tested 
with another question, all within the hearing of 
the teacher. Thus, those who were least pre- 
pared might be asked ten questions or even more. 
Those who were found to be well prepared were 
dismissed to their seats, with possibly only one or 
two questions, thus economizing my time, and giv- 
ing such as seemed least prepared the best oppor- 
tunity to vindicate themselves in the examination. 
My grading was in every instance to be recti- 
fied by the opinion of the teacher, as she certainly 
knew the standing and merit of the pupil by her 
line of instruction for two weeks much better 
than I could in so brief a trial. It might be asked 
then. Why not take the opinion of the teacher at 
once, and take the grades of the pupils from her 
opinions and further knowledge of the pupils' dili- 
gence and power ? The reply is, that my work as 
Superintendent was designed as much to show the 
teacher that I appreciated her faithfulness and 
skill in training her pupils, by what I should as- 
certain by this comparatively independent exam- 
ination in her presence, as to grade the pupils 



REMINISCENCES IN SALEM. 2/1 

properly in their thoroughness and advancement. 
When the examination was closed, I requested 
the teacher to assign according to her judgment, 
the additional matter which could well and thor- 
oughly be mastered within the next two weeks. 
This decision of the teacher, accepted always by 
myself, was made known at the time also to the class. 
Hence, in the second and third consecutive ex- 
aminations more and more work was continually 
given, and better and better results obtained, 
very frequently by the urgency of the pupils them- 
selves. The whole amount of subject matter as- 
signed was comparatively well mastered in one 
week, and the remaining time was then given to re- 
views or to additional matter on which the pupils 
wished to be examined at the time when the Su- 
perintendent came around. It was found by the 
time the second examination had transpired, that 
a new era had dawned upon the school, and the 
teachers, instead of being tyrannized over, as they 
had feared, were relieved almost entirely of 
the responsibility and vexation of governing their 
pupils. The interest excited by this plan of man- 
agement was so all-pervading and stimulating, 
that there was no more tardiness or absenteeism, 
no more shirking or mischief. Indeed, every 
pupil was doing his utmost to secure the best 
grades, and the teachers had only to guide and ad- 
vise in this endeavor. 

Every subordinate teacher, in our weekly teach- 
ers' meetings, expressed herself well satisfied and. 



2/2 REMINISCENCES. 

exceedingly happy in the supervision thus carried 
on. Not only was twice the amount of work 
done which had been done previously, but it was 
accomplished twice as well, and yet apparently by 
little effort on the part of the teacher. If there 
was any complaint in the village, the only one I 
ever heard of was that some of the children were 
taking too much time out of school to prepare 
their lessons and in reviewing their work in ex- 
pectancy of the semi-monthly examination. 
/ My experience with my eight subordinate 
teachers was, to me, a beautiful success ; and, at the 
end of the year, I felt prepared to resume my work 
as a teacher of teachers, if an opening should offer. 
Of my personal dealings with my pupils I give 
but one instance. Among other pupils in the 
grammar school was a very pretty girl of fifteen 
years, whose mother was a widow in good circum- 
stances. She indulged her daughter in attend- 
ing all the parties in town, also in all sorts of rides 
and other diversions, that drew off her attention, 
and interest from her school work. This very 
pretty girl was the object of general attention, 
and, being so much flattered, she had hoped to 
pass with her class to the High School the follow- 
ing year, in spite of her low grades in examina- 
tions. I informed her mother, by a note, that she 
could not pass, and requested to see her. She 
came immediately with her daughter. Apologiz- 
ing as well as I could for the girl, in the fact that she 
had found more pleasure in parties and drives, and 



REMINISCENCES IN SALEM. 2/3 

other divertisements,than in her school duties, and 
that I thought perhaps it was more the girl's mis- 
fortune than her fault, that she was so pretty that 
everybody wanted her at parties, nevertheless, I 
said that it would be doing a great injustice to all 
the school to let one pass who was known to be so 
deficient in her work as she was. Still, if the Di- 
rectors were willing to let her pass, I could not, of 
course, prevent it. She went to the Directors, and 
returned with the reply that they left it entirely 
to me. I remarked that I was very sorry for the 
daughter, and admired her very much, and that if 
she would employ a teacher during the vacation of 
six weeks, I thought it very probable, if she would 
give herself very diligently to study, she might 
catch up in those studies in which she was more 
deficient (mainly arithmetic). I would take the 
trouble to examine her in the first week of the 
new year, and, if I found her examination satis- 
factory, I should be very glad to let her pass into 
the High School. The arrangement was seized 
upon by both mother and daughter, and I have no 
doubt the young lady improved her opportunities 
most vigorously. She took her place with her 
classmates the next year, and, so far as I know, 
afterward made her school work her chief enjoy- 
ment. My experiences with the good people of 
Salem were, for the most part, very pleasant and 
satisfactory, so far as I was concerned, but 
scarcely worth narrating. I may only a:dd, that at 
the close of my year, the students and patrons, 
i8 



2/4 REMINISCENCES. 

without my knowledge raised a subscription and 
bought me a handsome gold watch, as a testimo- 
nial of their appreciation of my labors. The 
watch was worn by my wife for many years, and 
is now in the possession of one of my daughters. 



CHAPTER XV. 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 

I In August of 1855 I was invited by the teachers 
of Southwestern Ohio to join them in forming a 
Southwestern Normal School Association, the 
meeting of the Association to continue three weeks, 
and convene at Oxford in the buildings of the 
Miami University. I was invited to take charge 
of the special professional training work of this 
three weeks' institute. The leading teachers of the 
occasion were John Hancock and Prof. Rickoff, of 
Cincinnati ; Chas. Rogers, of Dayton ; C. C. Ellis, 
of Georgetov/n, and David Parsons, of Urbana. 
Quite a number of teachers and lecturers were 
employed in various lines of instruction. As the 
different courses of instruction proceeded from 
day to day, private conferences were held by the 
teachers for the purpose of presenting a plan to 
the Association for the permanent organization 
and establishment of a Normal School. When 
action was taken in the Association, I was appoint- 
ed the committee to draft a constitution for the 
Association, including the principal object of the 
Association — a Normal School. The draft that I 
(275) 



IjS REMINISCENCES. 

offered for a constitution was adopted, and a Board 
of Trustees was appointed for the selection of a 
site and for securing a Principal and the necessary- 
facilities for opening a Normal School, to be called 
the Southwestern State Normal School. Notices 
were inserted in the papers of the plan and of the 
desire of the Board to negotiate with any localities 
which were desirous of furnishing the requisite 
grounds and buildings for the said Institution. 
Judge J. C. Dunlevy, of Lebanon, communicated 
with the committee, and Lebanon, through nego- 
tiations with the leading citizens of that place, was 
selected as the site of the school. Lebanon pro- 
posed to furnish the use of the Academy building, 
as long as the school should continue, with an aver, 
age of eighty pupils, for five years, at such rates 
as the Board should adopt. Before the meet- 
ing in Oxford adjourned, I was,e^lected Principal of 
the prospective Normal Schoolj,^and visited Leba- 
non during the month of August, in order to be- 
come acquainted with the people, and to decide 
definitely as to the acceptance of the proposition 
made by the people of Lebanon. In looking 
around the town with Judge Dunlevy, I found at 
least a dozen very comfortable buildings, such as 
any family need not be ashamed of as residences, 
without tenants. My remark to Judge Dunlevy 
was, that these unoccupied buildings were the most 
desirable feature that Lebanon had to offer for 
opening a school. Although Lebanon was five 
miles from the nearest railroad, it still appeared 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 2// 

to me that, all things considered, it was the best 
site that could be found, for many reasons. The 
intelligence of the people, the numerous churches 
which seemed to be well sustained, and the entire 
salubrity of the location, together with the interest 
which the people exhibited in pledging themselves 
to support the school by an attendance of at least 
an average of eighty pupils for five years — these 
considerations, with the special interest which 
Judge Dunlevy manifested in the enterprise, 
seemed to me satisfactory in their promise for the 
rapid building up and continued growth of a large 
and flourishing Institution. I had yet a term of 
nine weeks to teach in Salem, to complete my 
year. I visited Lebanon once during that time, 
and made some necessary arrangements, issued 
circulars and advertisements for the opening of 
school on the 17th of November, 1855. As the 
soon as my term closed in Salem, which was about 
November 5, I came at once to Lebanon, to make 
the necessary repairs in the school buildings and 
to secure boarding places for pupils from abroad, 
and, if possible, to arouse an interest in the town 
and country round about in favor of the new en- 
terprise. I was very kindly received, and all my 
wishes were met. The Normal School Trustees 
held a joint meeting with the stockholders and 
Trustees of the Lebanon Academy, and a legal 
transfer was made to the Normal School Associa- 
tion, with the conditions before stated, forthe sup- 
port of the school, by the citizens of Lebanon. 



2/8 REMINISCENCES. 

My family were in Salem. My wife assured 
me by letter that it would not be necessary for me 
to return, as she, with such help as she could se- 
cure, would be able to pack and move, and take 
care of the six children, the eldest being about 
twelve years of age — that she preferred that I 
should remain in Lebanon, and get everything 
ready, as far as possible, for the opening of the 
school, and for the reception of the family. I 
concluded to take her advice, and left her with the 
burden and responsibility of making the removal. 
Notwithstanding we had a considerable amount of 
property, household goods and school apparatus, 
all of which had to be packed safely for transpor- 
tation upon the railroad, with several changes by 
the way, Mrs. Holbrook managed the whole affair 
herself, having very little help, with entire suc- 
cess, arriving in Lebanon, with children and serv- 
ant, in due time ; very tired, but all in good health 
and good spirits. The sympathy she received 
from some of the good people of Salem, especially 
in their hospitality and kindness on the day and 
night previous to her departure, was a matter of 
frequent remark, and of continued and deep ap- 
preciation. One Quaker family especially, the 
Pinkhams, took the responsibility and labor, after 
our goods were removed and shipped, of lodging 
the entire family during the night previous to 
their starting, giving them their supper and an 
an early breakfast, enabling them to leave Salem 
at 5 A. M. 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 2/9 

Among the repairs it was necessary for me to 
make in the Academy was the furnishing of sev- 
eral rooms, whitewashing and painting several 
others. The largest room, which had been used 
for a Primary School, No. 4, I had seated and fur- 
nished for a chapel. It would hold about 150. 
This was the largest room and best adapted to the 
purpose. One of the rooms, with sliding doors, 
was arranged with desks and seats for a model 
school ; another with desks for adults. All these 
arrangements and expenses were assumed by my- 
self, the Board of Trustees taking no risks and ad- 
vancing no means. In fact, they would venture 
nothing, and, when written to, rather advised me 
not to undertake it, provided I could not do so 
without depending on them. Not one of them 
was present at the opening of the Normal School. 
The agent, however, appointed to send in students, 
appeared in the course of time. The conditions 
on which I was engaged by the Association were 
that my salary should be limited to ;^ 1,200, and 
that I should have entire control of the school and 
make such regulations as appeared desirable. 
With such help from the Board of Trustees, and 
with no property of my own, save a library of 
three hundred volumes and an apparatus that had 
cost me $2,500, I assumed the entire responsibility, 
feeling that I had nothing to depend upon but my 
own efforts as guided and favored by Divine Provi- 
dence. I felt, however, the conviction that such 
a school was needed in this location for many 



280 REMINISCENCES. 

reasons, and that I should be assisted by the same 
good Providence that had hitherto blessed me and 
mine. 

The Public School teachers, of all the country- 
round about, I found inimical to the new enter- 
prise, fearing, as they said, that it would bring 
such a crowd of teachers from other parts, and 
the price of teaching would become so meager 
that they would be compelled to leave the neigh- 
borhood and go elsewhere. The price of teaching 
at that time, in the most favored schools outside 
of the villages, was not more than $i a day, so far 
as I could learn.* 

Mr. Kimball, the worthy principal of the Leba- 
non Public School, was friendly to me personally, 
and certainly not openly opposed to the success 
of the institution. About the 13th of November 
my family arrived. I met them on the omnibus, 
and we took our first meal together, after our long 
separation, at the Lebanon House. From the 
peepings and whisperings that came to our eyes 
and ears, we were led to suppose that we were 
each of us objects of curiosity. The good citi- 
zens of Lebanon were sufficiently surprised that 
thfe new teacher, depending on them, as they sup- 
posed, for subsistence, had come with such a nu- 
merous retinue, and felt, as they have since told 
me, a number of them, no little misgiving as to 
whether we v/ould find our bread and salt assured. 
The history of the four or five previous teachers 
who had occupied the Lebanon Academy since 

■••■The pay of country school teachers is now from $2.00 to 
$3.00 per day, in this county and adjoining counties. This is a 
direct result of the Normal School, in furnishing better teachers. 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 28 I 

its erection was sufficiently ominous. Nearly 
every one had commenced with a fair attendance, 
varying from 80 to 120; then the attendance 
diminished and diminished, until within two 
years the principal found himself involved in 
debt, unable to meet the demands of his creditors, 
and compelled to leave, in some cases escaping 
the sheriff's claims. A similar fate, they appre- 
hended, might overtake me, in consequence of 
the burden of so large a family.-. Mr. Suydam, 
one of the most liberal and intelligent citizens, 
soon after told me that, had he known I had such 
a large family, he would not have permitted me 
to come to Lebanon, or would at least have in- 
formed me of the endeavors of the previous 
teachers to sustain a school. My reply to Mr. Suy- 
dam's well-meant condolence was about like this: 
"It is not my expectation, Mr. S , that Leba- 
non will sustain me and my family; but it is my 
purpose, Deo volente, to build up Lebanon, and, to 
some extent, to sustain the town." Such was the 
confidence that seemed to possess my wife and me, 
the children then being too young to realize the 
nature of the undertaking or the extent of the re- 
sponsibility assumed. It is due the good citizens 
of Lebanon that I should acknowledge their hos- 
pitality, and general and marked kindness of the 
first families in the place, of all denominations. 
At the time, the Baptists were, perhaps, in pos- 
session of the most of the property, of the most 
attractive homes, and were the most cultivated 



282 REMINISCENCES. 

part of Lebanon society. This is not saying that 
there were not intelUgent, educated, and refined 
famihes in the other churches, for there were 
many; but through the Dunlevys and Corwins 
we became more immediately acquainted with all 
the Baptists, Melissa and I were invited as fre- 
quently as convenient to parties, at each of the 
Baptist homes, where we met very many intelli- 
gent and refined ladies and gentlemen. It was, 
indeed, a great encouragement to us, under the 
circumstances, that we were received, and, as it 
were, adopted into the best of Lebanon society — 
than which no better is to be found anywhere. 

The school commenced on November 17, 1855, 
about TOO pupils being present — 70 in the Normal 
Department, and 30 in the Model School. This 
Model School was all secured through the personal 
activity of Judge Dunlevy and his immediate rela- 
tives. It was made up of children under 12 years 
of age, from all the leading families in Lebanon. 
My assistant teachers were Mr. J. N. Bonham, 

Mr. H , from Kirtland, and Mrs. Holbrook 

in the Model School. . There were two foreign 
students present during the first week of the 
school. These were Mr. Henry Venable, now 
of Chickering Institute, Cincinnati, O., and Mr. 
Crosley, since, for twenty-five years and more, a 
leading and influential minister of the Universalist 
persuasion. This was rather a small beginning for 
a Normal School, for these really were the only 
Normal students — the only ones who expected to 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 283 

make teachers of themselves. The attendance 
from Lebanon was that of a village high school. 
By degrees other students arrived from the sur- 
rounding country, and several from Brown County, 
drawn by the influence of the agent of the Board 
of Trustees, who had been appointed to lecture 
and canvass Brown County and other counties in 
the southwestern part of the .State, for the pur- 
pose of securing students. No special accommo- 
dation had been provided for students from abroad, 
but, several coming in, I found it necessary to rent 
rooms and furnish them for self-boarding. I was 
hardly able, at this stage of affairs, to rent a build- 
ing, and none of the citizens were willing to rent 
rooms in their dwellings for the use of Normal 
students ; hence the rooms that I obtained and 
furnished were chiefly in abandoned shops or in 
some unused wings of deserted houses. The 
furniture and bedding were supplied by myself, 
and the rooms fitted up, under my own immedi- 
ate attention, by my three boys, the oldest being 
12 years of age. Such rooms, with their very 
meager furniture, including a bed and two chairs, 
a table and second-hand cooking-stove, were ac- 
cepted thankfully by those who had come for the 
purpose of Normal School instruction. No com- 
fortable board could be obtained in the place for 
less than $^ a week. This fact in itself, of course, 
prevented any very large attendance on the plan 
of hiring board and lodging. Several families in 
the neighborhood brought their children, rented 



284 REMINISCENCES. 

furnished rooms, and brought in supplies for them. 
Thus the year went on ; the agent sent in several, 
perhaps twenty, pupils from Brown County, and 
possibly some from other localities ; but he secured 
their tuition money in advance, leaving me to fur- 
nish the instruction and to take care of their board- 
ing accommodations on my own responsibility and 
at my own expense. .. 

The experiment thus far, as I had my two teach- 
ers to pay, was not particularly promising. When 
the time of the summer vacation drew near, I ad- 
vertised an Institute of five weeks as a part of the 
regular work of the Normal School. I had previ- 
ously, however, secured the aid of several worthy 
gentlemen in conducting the Institute. A com- 
mittee of young men from the school canvassed 
the town to ascertain how many could be accom- 
modated during the Institute term, counting rate 
for board and room at ;^2.25 per week. Accom- 
modations were promised for about seventy-five 
students at this price. The Lebanon House also 
would furnish board and lodging for ;$2.50, two 
in a room, or ;^3.00 per week, one in a room. 
Accommodations for about one hundred foreign 
students were thus secured. As the time for the 
Institute drew near, however, I was informed in 
various ways that this family and that family would 
not be able to take boarders as they had agreed. 
In fact I discovered that it was the general feeling 
that ;S2.25 was not sufficient compensation for the 
time, expense, and labor of keeping boarders. 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 285 

This was a dilemma. My advertisements were 
out, my character was at stake, and the prospect 
was anything but cheering. Receiving word from 
various quarters of the proposed attendance of a 
large number of students, much larger than the 
boarding accommodations thus cut short could 
supply, I held, a council with my wife as to how 
we should meet the difficulties in this emergency. 
My first step was to rent a large vacant building 
on the corner of Mulberry and Mechanic Streets, 
in which there might be accommodated possibly 
sixty students, two in a room. The building was 
somewhat dilapidated, had only been used in part 
for offices, and was wholly without furniture. Now, 
within four weeks, this building must be fitted up 
with bedsteads, tables, chairs, changes of bedding, 
washstands, and some few other conveniences. I 
proceeded to accomplish the object with the limited 
means at my command. I purchased a Wheeler & 
Wilson sewing-machine, for which I paid i^iio in 
Cincinnati, the first sewing-machine of any value 
ever used in Lebanon. Arriving at home, and 
putting a girl to work making sheets and pillow- 
cases, etc., the machine would not work. Al- 
though warranted, it had not been properly ad- 
justed at the manufactory. This made it neces- 
sary for me to take the machine entirely apart, 
and study all its arrangements and adjustments, 
and thus, having discovered the difficulty, to re- 
place the parts and so adjust them that it would 
accomplish its design. The Wheeler & Wilson 



286 REMINISCENCES. 

machine was at that time very compHcated, and 
such was its bobbin and the circular finger that 
carried the thread around the bobbin with the 
proper tension, that it required some considerable 
length of time in experiment to accomplish the 
necessary adjustment. At length it was done; 
the machine worked well. But for my early 
mechanical training in Boston and New York, 
much expense and delay would have ensued. 
The girl that I employed to sew with the ma- 
chine being utterly inexperienced, was displaced 
by my wife. She succeeded, however, with her 
own hands and feet, in fitting up thirty beds, 
making herself the ticks, sheets, pillowcases, bed- 
covers, and pillows. Thus this difficulty was, in a 
measure, overcome. I found myself prepared to 
receive students as they came in, it being sup- 
posed that most of them would occupy these 
rooms, boarding themselves, or that those who 
preferred would take their meals at the hotel. 
At the close of a week at the hotel, a committee 
was sent to me to inform me that the board at the 
hotel was unsatisfactory, and that better arrange- 
ments must be made, or the large number who 
were boarding there would be obliged to leave the 
Institute. I was then occupying the property 
owned by Dr. Elliott, opposite the Methodist 
Church. Consulting with my wife, we concluded 
it was necessary to offer these teachers table-board 
in our own house. Additional tableware must be 
furnished, and other arrangements made, in order 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 28/ 

to accommodate about seventy with table-board ; 
and our dining-room and sitting-room were both 
crowded two or three times in succession at each 
meal with those whom we were striving to make 
comfortable. Most of them retained their lodg- 
ings at the hotel, but took their meals with us. 
Of course, this new burden fell upon my wife, 
with such untrained help as she could engage, ex- 
temporize, and manage. This difficulty being sur- 
mounted, the Institute proceeded, and, on the 
whole, was a decided success, in everything but 
the finances, most of the income having been ab- 
sorbed by the agent of the Institute. In footing 
up the income and outgoes of the year, and the 
amount that I had actually received and expended 
for the support of my family, my wife teaching six 
hours and I seven hours per day, we found that we 
had only applied to our own use and support ;^32o; 
whatever other income there was being used to pay 
the two teachers, or held by the agent as compen- 
sation for his services. This result of our first 
year's income was much worse financially than we 
expected, for we had assumed that the agent would 
receive a per cent, for his services, and that the 
school would be sustained by the bulk of his re- 
ceipts. Instead of this, the agent retained all the 
money that he had received, and we were left to 
take care of ourselves, and give instruction to the 
students that he sent, without receiving any com- 
pensation for the labor and expense involved. 
Many of the circumstances connected with the 



288 REMINISCENCES. 

action of the Trustees in regard to the continuation 
of the school I shall omit; but it is due, perhaps, 
that I should mention that I discovered a con- 
spiracy, on the part of the Trustees, going on 
during the Institute, by which, according to their 
own acknowledgment, I, who had made a success 
of establishing the school, was to be ousted, and 
one of their number placed in charge. They had 
hazarded nothing, and expended very little. Now, 
the constitution that I had drawn up made the 
students in attendance electors for the Board of 
Trustees. Judge Dunlevy was the first one who 
revealed to me that the Trustees were determined 
to dislodge me. In fact, he had been consulted 
on the subject, and had yielded enough to the 
proposals and intentions of those in the conspiracy 
to get the whole matter out of them. I felt secure 
of the election of three Trustees favorable to my 
continuance, instead of those whose term had ex- 
pired by the Constitution, and with such agencies 
as were at my command, made certain the election 
of such men. When the election came off, the 
result was as I had expected. Three of the old 
Trustees were dropped, and three new ones 
elected, favorable to my continuance. Thus oc- 
curred a tie in the Board. That I had left a good 
position, as good as any of the Trustees occupied; 
that I had risked everything; that I had even to 
risk my reputation as an educator, with little or 
no encouragement from them ; that I had made a 
success in spite of one of their Trustees, the agent, 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 289 

taking a large proportion of the money, instead of 
putting it into the treasury, — were considerations 
of little moment. But that a good position was to 
be had, with little or no expense, or risk, on their 
part, which I had made by my own enterprise, was 
a matter of chief consideration. After the election, 
at the Board meeting, some unimportant matters 
being disposed of, the election of the Principal for 
the second year was in order. Judge Dunlevy, 
being one of the Board, arose, and commenced 
offering a resolution for my reelection for the sec- 
ond year. He had been apprised of the course 
that the three in opposition would take when this 
measure was proposed, and was ready for the 
emergency. Their plan was this : Knowing that, 
with the President of the Board, I would be elected, 
they had agreed secretly to leave the meeting before 
the motion could be acted upon, and thus defeat 
my reelection, even though it should destroy the 
whole enterprise. The moment Judge Dunlevy 
offered the resolution, the President put it to vote, 
and, before they could get their hats, and get out 
of the room, it was decided that Holbrook was 
elected for the second year. Those three gentle- 
men never appeared as members of the Board 
afterward, nor did they send in their resignations. 
The four members of the Board remaining con- 
tinued, however, to transact the business, all that 
was necessary, until the election of the new Board, 
on the succeeding year. The agent was one of the 
recalcitrant members, and his labors were thus 
19 



290 REMINISCENCES. 

dispensed with, and whatever receipts came in 
from the students went into the treasury of the 
Institution. 

It was then a custom, not entirely out of vogue 
now, among- examiners to take an interest in party 
poHtics in the county in which they are elected. 
One of the Board of Trustees of the Normal 
was a county examiner in Montgomery County. 
Through the connivance of the other county 
officers of the same party, he was accustomed to 
sell the best positions for teachers in the county 
to creatures of his own, receiving a per cent, of 
the salary of the teachers so appointed, or, if you 
please, arranged for by himself The six or eight 
best positions, that paid the most in Montgomery 
County, were those chiefly, as he supposed, under 
his control. If it should so happen that, in spite 
of his personal manipulation, the district or union 
school should select a teacher for itself, then such 
a teacher was usually prevented from filling his 
contract by those managing the county examina- 
tion. One way in which this was done revealed 
itself at this first Institute in Lebanon. Without 
having any detectives, I had friends in attendance 
who were willing to keep me posted on the meas- 
ures which were secretly going on under the direc- 
tion or connivance of this first Board of Trustees. 
A certain student from Montgomery County 
entered, paid his tuition, but attended no classes 
regularly. I was told that he was using this time 
for the purpose of securing such teachers from 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 29I 

Montgomery County, or elsewhere, as would fill 
those leading places in that county, and these po- 
sitions were, in a certain sense, set up at private 
sale, not at public auction, to those who would 
give the largest part of their salary. Men were 
selected from those present, with their written 
pledge that, if they obtained these positions, they 
would pay from ten to twenty per cent, to this 
Trustee, who claimed to be the leading examiner 
from Montgomery County. Moreover, those who 
had pledged themselves,. in this manner, were as- 
sured that they would secure good certificates at 
the coming examination in that county, on the 
following plan : The questions of the examination 
were in the hands of this agent of the Examining 
Board, and copies were given to all of those who 
were expecting positions. They would thus have 
opportunity to prepare especially on those ques- 
tions in the different branches for the examination ; 
whereas, those who did not have the questions in 
advance, because of the difficulty or unfairness of 
the questions, either failed of getting certificates, 
or received such meager testimony of their ability 
as would cut them off from the positions for which 
they had contracted. Mr. F was in attend- 
ance at the Institute, as pupil teacher, a gentleman 
of fine abilities, and very considerable experience 
as a teacher, at that time, thirty, years ago. With 
a recomimendation from me, he made application 
for the superintendency of the graded schools, at 
Germantown, Montgomery County. His appli- 



292 REMINISCENCES. 

cation was favorably received, and a contract was 
made, conditional, of course, upon his success at 
the county examination, at Dayton. He attended 
the examination, but received, in due time, a cer- 
tificate for six months, the least time that the law 

provided for. This was what Mr. F and I 

expected. The salary, at Germantown, was ;^ 1,000 
a year, and a matter of some consideration to most 

teachers. When Mr. F— received a certificate 

for six months, the longest time being for two 
years, he brought the certificate to me, and we 
held a consultation. The result of our mutual 
opinions and views, was that he should go to 
Dayton, and secure the services of the best lawyer 
of the party in power, and, through his influence,, 
obtain justice from the Board of Examiners. Mr. 

F , however, first went to the examiner, and 

demanded his examination papers, but they were 
refused, and he was very curtly told, that if justice 
had been done, he would not have had any cer- 
tificate at all. He secured the services of a lawyer, 
who first consulted with the Judge of Probate, and 

then went with Mr. F to seethe examiner again. 

After a short conversation between the lawyer and 
the examiner, the latter filled out a blank for a two 
years' certificate, and handed it to Mr. F , with- 
out any remarks. The result was, that Mr. F 

secured the position, and the nominee of the Board 
of Examiners was rejected. 

The narration of this case brings to mind a simi- 
lar one which occurred in Chardon while I was 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 293 

teaching' there. One of the examiners, Mr. G , 



was conducting a private school at Burton, and it 
was his custom to bring" several of his student? to 
the examination, who had evidently been previ- 
ously carefully drilled on his list of questions in 
grammar and arithmetic. These were presented 
for the examination of the entire body of appli- 
cants for certificates. These questions were pre- 
pared for a special purpose of tripping those who 
were not in the Burton school. These questions 
involved no principles, but were made up of 
catches and ambiguities, which might be answered 
in this way or that way. The result was, that in- 
stead of increasing his school, the general in- 
dignation thus aroused, compelled his patrons in 
Burton to dismiss him from his position. 

In those days, institutes were not conducted to 
any extent by examiners, nor was there any county 
fund collected from teachers, or provided for other- 
wise to sustain county institutes. The present 
arrangement of the accumulation of county funds 
under the control of the Board of Examiners has 
led to a very general abuse of the examiners' 
power in granting or withholding certificates to 
those whom they wish to favor or injure. The 
general complaint of this abuse has called for a 
law which forbids any persons who are teaching 
teachers to act as examiners. For lack of any 
provision for the execution of the law, or for any 
penalty upon the Judge of Probate for not enforc- 
ing the law, it is to a large extent inoperative, and 



294 REMINISCENCES. 

the abuse is widespread, and in many cases largely 
detrimental to the educational interests of the 
county under the domination of a Board of un- 
scrupulous examiners. 

More recently this evasion of the law has been 
practiced: The examiner who wishes to conduct 
the county institute and secure the larger part 
of the institute fund, resigns just before his insti- 
tute or normal begins, and is reappointed as soon 
as it closes. Of course, the Judge of Probate is a 
party to this evasion of law, and ought himself to 
be impeached, but party politics " cover a multi- 
tude of sins." 

I have before stated that my wife took charge 
of the model school. Our united efforts in mak- 
ing the model school a means of practical and 
valuable training to the pupil teachers, Ayere of 
little value otherwise than to convince us that 
model schools are worse than use-less for any such 
purpose. Various objections developed thern- 
selves as our experiments proceeded. We felt 
that we had every possible advantage for conduct- 
ing such a department. It is not necessary to 
enumerate them. 

The first objection was, it seriously interferes 
with the regular study and training of the pupil 
teachers, while giving their time to training and 
observation in the model school. Second objec- 
tion : It is impossible to place the pupil teacher 
under circumstances in the management of a class 
of children, which are in any sense equivalent to 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 295 

the management of a similar class of children in 
his own school. For the most difficult part of his 
work, viz. , the sustentation of order, is necessarily 
withheld from the pupil teacher, and exercised by 
the training teacher, thus defeating the chief ob- 
ject of the training in the very act. Third objec- 
tion : In the necessarily frequent change of pupil 
teachers, the children made use of in the model 
school or in a model class, become so accustomed 
to the regime of the acting, rather than of the 
reality, that such children never behave as real 
pupils do when under the real instruction of the 
teacher to whom they feel themselves responsible. 
Spontaneity of action is thus destroyed, both for 
pupil teacher and pupil. Fourth objection: In 
the very nature of the case, this line of training, 
if it were practicable and^useful otherwise, could 
only be used for any one pupil, in one grade and 
for but one kind of class in that grade. The man- 
agement of model classes, wherever they are 
tolerated, generally confines the training, so-called, 
to the lowest grade, and to that only, this class 
of children being those who are the most easily 
managed. Fifth objection : The assumed circum- 
stances necessarily involved in this false relation 
between the children and the pupil teacher, have, 
even under the most favorable conditions, a de- 
moralizing effect upon the conscience and honesty 
of the pupils suffering by these assumptions. 
Sixth objection : The expenditure of time on the 
part of the training teacher, and of the Principal, 



296 REMINISCENCES. 

under whom these training exercises are conducted, 
make the whole matter involving the time spent with 
the model classes, and the time required for criti- 
cism, discussion, correction and improvement of the 
points made or not made in the training exercises, 
too expensive altogether, for any good results that 
can come from such a lavish waste of time and 
labor on the part of the pupil teacher, the train- 
ing teacher, and the Principal. Seventh objec- 
tion : The results from these training schools with 
model classes, or model schools, have everywhere, 
with, of course, a few exceptions, been such as to 
show that every pupil thus trained, has really had 
to learn the whole business of class management 
and all class instruction over again, independently 
by himself and for himself, and furthermore with 
the expense of overcoming and unlearning what- 
ever ideas or practical trend he had acquired from 
a model school training under the supervision of 
the training teacher or teachers. On thp other 
hand, the training classes which, for years, I con- 
ducted in Berea, Chardon, Kirtland and Marl- 
borough, gave immeasurably better results, in the 
immediate success of those thus trained. Of the 
hundreds who had been thus trained, scarcely a 
failure had happened in their first experience in 
teaching and managing a school. Remark : The 
kind of mechanical training which model schools 
under the most favorable conditions can give, is 
without the true spirit of independent and en- 
thusiastic management on the part of the teacher. 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 29/ 

This kind of training may answer for the schools 
of absolute Governments like Germany, or possibly 
for the autocratic management of the charity 
schools of England, but is utterly abortive with 
the free spirits of Young America. 

Our second year, opening September i, 1856, 
Avas, on the whole, rather favorable, While we 
lost considerable attendance from the town, we 
gained almost as much in the attendance from 
abroad, in the Normal Department. The original 
Board of Trustees and their agent had relieved us 
of their control and absorption of the income 
from the sale of scholarships. Still there were 
many pupils attending, who had previously paid 
the defunct agency, and were instructed at my ex- 
pense, yielding no returns, except, perhaps, their 
own good will, and their personal influence, so far 
as it extended, in bringing their friends to the in- 
stitution. Mr. B had been hired by the 

agent of the Normal School Association. He had 
received but a moiety of his stipulated salary. 
Disgusted with the treatment he had received 
from the Board of Trustees, he refused to continue 
his relations with the school, and threatened to 
prosecute for his unpaid salary. On investigation, 
however, he found no property belonging to the 
Trustees, and whatever there was in the way of 
seats and desks, I had provided at my own ex- 
pense, and whatever of library and apparatus there 
was, I had brought with me. The Association, 
as represented by the first Board, was thus virtu- 



298 REMINISCENCES. 

ally bankrupt and defunct. The financial respon- 
sibility, together^ with the entire control of all the 
interests of the institution, henceforth devolved 
upon me. The new Board, being elected by the 
students, asserted no control, nor did they assume 
any financial responsibility. Any action which 
they took or were inclined to take in behalf of the 
institution was such as to give me, however, op- 
portunity to carry out my own measures, and to 
realize ^my own plans, and reap the harvest of 
whatever ingenuity, philosophy or labor I could 
bestow in the management of the institution. 
During the second year, several of my pupils in 
former schools came from the North, and I em- 
ployed as teachers the second year, J. H. Reed, 
Miss Catherine S. Morris, and also Miss Margaret 
Morey, teacher of the Model School. Mr. Reed 
and Miss Morris had been pupils at Marlborough ; 
and were still pursuing their education while act- 
ing as teachers, each about three hours per day. 
The number of pupils reported during the second 
year, including those in the Model School, was 
257. The Model School supported itself during 
this year, paying the teacher and other expenses, 
but for professional reasons was discontinued at 
the close of the year. In all, seven teachers were 
employed. Lebanon furnished eighty pupils in 
the Normal School, besides twenty-six in the 
Model Department. 

During these first two years, it was with much 
difficulty that suitable accommodations could be 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 299 

secured for dormitories. The citizens of Leba- 
non refusing to rent rooms to students, I was 
compelled to rent such buildings and rooms as 
could find no other occupants. I furnished these 
plainly, for self-boarding, and thus, most students 
coming from beyond Lebanon boarded them- 
selves in these rented buildings. Others, how- 
ever, paid at the rate of ^5 per week, for full 
accommodations in private families. 

It was during this year that a rather exciting 
conflict with the county examiners took place, on 
the subject of grammar. The member of the 
Board who had charge of this subject, contended 
that passive verbs were intransitive, while the 
pupils of the normal school, without exception, 
parsed them as transitive. He marked them as 
defective, continuously, and diminished their grades 
and their standing in view of this difference of 
opinion. This was not a little* annoying to me, 
as the gentleman who had charge of this was one 
of the pastors of the town, and in every other 
way a competent and respectable gentleman. But 
it became a question in my mind whether I should 
succumb to his false views, as I considered them, 
or take such measures as would drive him from 
his position. I concluded to take the latter course. 

Having instructed Miss M , naturally a very 

quick thinker, and of amiable and winning, man- 
ners, I sent her in to the examination. It hap- 
pened that the examination in grammar on that 
occasion was oral, giving Miss M an oppor- 



300 REMINISCENCES. 

tunity to present her views in accordance also 
with mine, in such a manner as to place the worthy- 
examiner entirely at fault, both with the other 
examiners and with the large body of pupil 
teachers present. Our pupils thenceforth were 
never marked with unfair grades for calling pas- 
sive verbs transitive. Those who have given any 
attention to this matter will realize at once, that 
this error of the learned gentleman came from the 
false and yet very prevalent definition of the transi- 
tive verb, viz.: a transitive verb is one which 
takes an object after it to complete its meaning. 
The word after in this case was the misleading 
point in the definition. Passive verbs always take 
their objects before them as their subjects. 

During the third year, the Normal School proper 
enrolled 335 different pupils, of whom 85 were resi- 
dents in Lebanon. The table of statistics, given as 
appertaining to the school, is as follows : The value 
of buildings, ;$i 0,000; the apparatus in use, ;$ 1,200; 
number of volumes in Reference Library, 300. It 
was during this year that the periodical called The 
No7'mal Methods began to be issued in quarterly 
numbers. This periodical continued for two years. 
I then published it in one volume, called The N01'- 
inal Methods of TeacJiing. The State Commis- 
sioner, Mr. Anson Smythe, under authority of the 
State, purchased from me, as publisher, fifteen 
hundred volumes, to supply the schools of the 
State. A. S. Barnes & Co., of New York, who 
were already publishing some dozen different vol- 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 3OI 

umes upon pedagogics, then assumed the pubh- 
cation of my book ; and I have been assured a 
number of times, by agents of that house, that 
The Normal Methods had secured a wider sale 
than any of their pedagogical publications, except, 
perhaps, Page's TJieory and Practice. The wide 
sale of this book for Institute use, and for train- 
ing purposes in Normal Schools, contributed very 
largely to the building up of this Institution in 
each successive year up to 1861. I find, by con- 
sulting the several catalogues of the respective 
years, that the school increased regularly in its 
attendance. The assembly room of the Academy, 
during the fourth year, proved too small to accom- 
modate all the students at one time, thus prevent- 
ing the full advantage of our general exercises. By 
a vote of the Town Council, I was permitted to use 
the Washington Hall as an assembly room, by 
agreeing to pay rent double of that which had 
been paid before, at the same time receiving my- 
self all the avails for the use of the hall for even- 
ing lectures and other purposes. These receipts 
nearly or quite canceled .the rent. During this, 
the fourth year, 1859, pupils were present from 
Maine, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Iowa, In- 
diana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Ohio. The whole 
number of dififerent pupils was 360. The number 
of teachers employed 7. Several additional build- 
ing were rented, and fitted up for dormitories. 
This became necessary from the increased attend- 
ance from abroad, while the attendance from town 



302 REMINISCENCES. 

proportionately diminished (on the principle, doubt- 
less, that "a prophet is not without honor save in 
his own country and among his own people"). 
The rent of a furnished room, without carpet, for 
each pupil, at this period, was sixty cents per 
week, the tuition being ;^8.33 per session of eleven 
weeks. In the fifth year, i860, 375 pupils were 
enrolled, 10 teachers employed, and fifty weeks 
were occupied for the school year, viz., four terms 
of eleven weeks, and an Institute of six weeks. 
The tuition was raised this year to ;^io per session. 
During the first year of the war, the sixth of the 
school, 1861, the number of pupils enrolled was 
272 ; the number of teachers 9. This being the 
first year of the war, many of the male students 
volunteered, and left for the army, thus dimin- 
ishing the attendance and the income. My two 
sons, Josiah and Reg. Heber, were among the first 
who volunteered, one being seventeen and the 
other sixteen years of age. 

During the seventh year of the school, repeated 
calls from the President for volunteers, in behalf 
of the country's safety, reduced the entire attend- 
ance for the year to 220; the number of teachers 
employed, 6. During the eighth year, 1863, pu- 
pils enrolled were 304; teachers employed, 6. 
The income not being adequate to support the 
board of teachers. Prof. W. D. Henke, having 
filled the Chair of Mathematics for three years, 
left the Normal to take charge of the Lebanon 
Union School. 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 303 

During the ninth year, 1864, pupils enrolled 
472 ; teachers employed, 7. The first graduating 
class, nine in all, took their diplomas. The cur- 
riculum of this class was equivalent to that of our 
present College of Science. The Business Depart- 
ment was also established, giving a very full and 
practical course of business operations, including 
all the branches necessary in business correspond- 
ence, business calculations, and the management 
of any set of books, whatever, in any kind of 
business'. During the tenth year, 1865, when the 
war closed, the number of pupils enrolled, 612; 
number of teachers employed, 10; scientific grad- 
uates, 14; business graduates, 47. During this 
year a full College Course was introduced, with 7 
pupils in the Senior or Classic Course. This cur- 
riculum, thus introduced, was carried through 
successfully, and all of those who graduated 
secured at once good positions as teachers or 
business men. The tuition was raised this year 
to ;^ii for eleven weeks. 

I have spoken before of John A. Norris, who, 
during 1866, in his canvass for the State Com- 
missionership, visited me two or three times. I 
was led with more confidence to adopt the full 
college curriculum in half the time of other insti- 
tutions, as he had, without special effort or injury 
to his health, accomplished the six years' course 
at Kenyon in two years and a half. The number 
of students in the College Department for this year 
were: Graduates in the Classic Class, 7; gradu- 



304 REMINISCENCES. 

ates in the Scientific Class, 8 ; undergraduates^ 
Senior or Classic Class, 8 ; undergraduates in the 
Junior or Scientific Class, 47. It was during that 
year that I commenced the publication of an edu- 
cational monthly called Tlie Normal. My son, 
Reginald Heber, was the editor. During this 
year I made my first purchase of buildings for 
dormitories — one in West Lebanon, that I named 
the "Eureka"; the other on Main Street, which 
I named the "Deuterian." The Eureka con- 
tained eight rooms, and was occupied by both 
ladies and gentlemen, with no teacher or other 
person in the building to whom they felt them- 
selves responsible. 

Leaving now, for the time, these statistical 
facts, I will give a few characteristic circum- 
stances, endeavoring thus to exemplify the 
method of management pursued. In this build- 
ing, the Eureka, at the time I am now speaking 
of, there were four rooms occupied by ladies and 
four by gentlemen, two in each room. One of 
the rooms was occupied by two ladies from the 
vicinity of Cincinnati, who had previously spent 
considerable time at a ladies' boarding-school, 
but, their father being embarrassed by going" 
security for a neighbor, they had thought it nec- 
essary to prepare for teaching, in order to relieve 
their father of their support. I shall call these 
ladies Sarah and Susan Jones. There had been 
brought to me, by her brother, another young 
lady from a boarding-school at Oxford, the brother 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 3O5 

himself being a student of Miami University. 
From what I could learn from the brother, his 
sister had not been comporting herself according 
to his wishes, in her school relations, and had given 
her teacher and himself very considerable anxiety. 
It was evident, from his conversation, without his 
especially committing himself unfavorably to his 
sister, that she had been a pretty wild girl in her 
boarding-school experience. In reflecting on what 
course should be taken to correct, if possible, or 
to neutralize her boarding-school training, I con- 
cluded to place her in this Eureka building, en- 
tirely relieved from any supervision of any teacher 
whatever, thinking that it was possible that this 
boarding-school espionage and overdone watchful- 
ness on her moral and social character had been 
the cause of her dereliction. I transferred one 
lady from this building to another, and placed 

Miss N with a sedate and reliable young lady 

as her roommate. In those days, when we used 
Saturday as our vacant day, our literary exercises 
occurred weekly, on Friday night, and often lasted 
until 10 or ii o'clock. It was, perhaps, the first 

evening exercise of this kind that Miss N had 

attended, and, in walking from the Academy to 
her room, about half a mile distant, it was noticed 
by the other young ladies going from the same 
place to the same house, that one of the young 

men rooming there, in walking with Miss N , 

was, by some means or other, walking with his 
arm around her waist. The ladies, of course, 
20 



306 REMINISCENCES. 

could say nothing about it while this transaction 
was going on ; but, when they arrived at the 
Eureka, they called an indignation meeting in the 
room of the Misses Jones, and, passing proper 
resolutions, appointed Miss Susan a committee 
to wait upon me, to inform me of the conduct of 

Miss N . Miss Susan called upon me the next 

morning, and, in the capacity of committee, laid 
before me the whole affair, including the indigna- 
tion meeting of the young ladies in her room. I 
listened, with no little interest, to Miss Susan's 
statement. When she had closed her remarks, I 
sat deliberating, for a minute or two, as to what 
was the best course to pursue in order to help this 
boarding-school girl to recover her position in the 
esteem of the young ladies, and to restore her to 
the ordinary usages of good society. While I was 
thus reflecting. Miss Susan said: " Well, Mr. Hol- 
brook, what are you going to do about it?" Said 
I: "Miss Susan, I am not going to do anything 
about it." Rising in her full height, in the vigor 
of her womanhood, she addressed me, as nearly 
as I can remember, in these words: "What! Mr. 
Holbrook, are we to understand that young ladies 
attending this school are to be tolerated or en- 
couraged in such loose and disgraceful conduct on 
the open streets of the town ? Are we, who have 
been better brought up, to be informed that we 
have no protection from a class of girls who, it 
seems, know no better, or desire to do no better? 
Is the building in which we are placed by your 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 307 

authority to suffer the reproach of such disgraceful 
conduct, and those of us who conduct ourselves 
properly to suffer under the reproach of such girls 
as Miss N ?" I replied: "Miss Susan, noth- 
ing could gratify me more than the remarks which 
you have just made. It is from the fact that you 
young ladies at the Eureka are well raised and well 
behaved, and are in my estimation perfect ladies, 
that I placed this boarding-school girl in that build- 
ing, virtually under your influence ; and it will prove 
very fortunate for her, that she has found sisters, 
classmates, who will have infinitely better influence 
upon her than any of her teachers have ever been 
able to exert. If there is any salvation for her, 
you will prove her best friends. You ladies of the 
Eureka, according to your own representations, 
liave done what I wish you to have done. You 
liave united yourselves in a band for self-protec- 
tion, and have thus asserted your characters, and 
demonstrated that the conduct of young ladies and 
gentlemen in school need be no worse under school 
or college influence, than the conduct of the same 
ladies and gentlemen would be in their own homes, 
surrounded by the ordinary moral and social re- 
straints of home life. I was satisfied when Miss 
N came here that, so far as she had retro- 
graded from her home conduct, it was attributable 
entirely to her mismanagement at school, and for 
this reason I placed her in that building, entirely 
beyond the supervision of teachers, in order that 
she might be relieved of that kind of suspicion and 



308 REMINISCENCES. 

espionage which evidently had been the cause of 
her misconduct. Now, Miss Susan, you no doubt 
were a lady (as you are now) in your school 
life, but you will certainly not say that all the 
young ladies conducted themselves properly under 
boarding-school rules and spies. If you please, 
what did you expect me to do, under the circum- 
stances, in order to protect you from the further 

misconduct of Miss N ? Permit me to say 

what I suppose you thought I would do. It was 
simply this : That I would, in the first place, call 

Miss N to my office, and give her a serious 

lecture. In -the second place, that I would bring 
up her case openly and personally at * General 
Exercises, ' and there give her another excoriation. 
Now, Miss Susan, this is the very course which 
has embittered that girl against school life, and 
has been the cause of her unfortunate conduct, 
and, if continued, it would probably be her ruin, 
as it has been the ruin of many other good and 
worthy girls. If you please, just let the matter 
rest right here. You young ladies have already 
made Miss N understand that you do not ap- 
prove of it, and she, no doubt, is expecting some 
serious conflict with the authorities of the school, 
and she has prepared herself for it. Let us dis- 
appoint her, and, in due time, if the plan does not 
work well, report to me again. If it does work 
well, I should like to know, of course, and shall 
then give you the credit of having restored the girl 
to her right mind ; for, in my opinion, Miss N 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 3O9 

was, before she left home, a good girl, but a very 
spirited one, and just such a one as would be in- 
jured by the ill-advised restrictions and regulations 
of boarding-school life." 

Miss Susan replied: "Mr. Holbrook, I don't 
know but what you are right, but I am very much 
afraid it will not work. I am afraid she is a, bad 
girl. I don't think she is a lost girl, by any means ; 
but I am afraid she has gone so far in her lawless- 
ness, that her case is almost hopeless." "Well, 
Miss Susan, if you please, let us try this plan. 
Tell all the young ladies that I thank them for 

their interest in Miss N , and for sending you 

as their committee to report to me." 

The result was that the young ladies had no 

further reason to complain of Miss N . She 

behaved as well as any of them when she found 
that she was just as free to do right in her school 
life, as she was in her home life. The names here 
given, of course, are assumed, as the persons are 
all living, I believe, and only they are likely to 
recognize the line of incidents here described. 

A circumstance occurred about the same time 
with a gentleman from one of the Ohio colleges. 
He came here to prepare himself for teaching, in 
order to get funds to go on with his college course. 
He entered the Teachers' Department about the 
middle of the term for eleven weeks. At the close 
of the term, when he had five weeks yet due him 
in the Normal School, I told the gentleman, whom 
I will call Mr. Smith, that I was about to form a 



3IO REMINISCENCES. 

class in Greek, of twelve pupils who had given 
their names for that purpose. Said I : "Mr. Smith, 
I have understood from you that you have been 
studying Greek six months at your college, and 
that you have made it a specialty somewhat. Now 
I want to ask you to be present at the organiza- 
tion of my Greek class, and see for yourself that 
no one of those who are commencing the study 
knows even the Greek letters. 

At the close of the five weeks due you here, I 
should like to have you visit the class again, 
when, I think you, yourself being the judge, will 
be compelled to admit that this class will in six 
weeks know more about the Greek language than 
you have learned in six months." "Oh, that is 
impossible. Why," said he, "I studied Greek 
nearly all the time." " So I understand, Mr, 
Smith." "But I had the best teacher in the 
United States, save one at Harvard College." 
In fact, he was the first in his class, and was se- 
lected from college for that reason. " I grant all 
you say, Mr. Smith, and I will grant another thing, 
and that is, that you are intellectually as capable 
as any member of my new class. Still I have no 
hesitancy in saying, that if you will be present at 
two or three of my last recitations before you 
leave, you will be willing to say, upon what you 
yourself know of yourself and what you observe in 
the progress of the class, that they understand 
Greek in six weeks' training better than you do 
from the six months' study you gave under the 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 3 II 

best teacher in the United States. Mr. Smit h 
was present at the organization of my class, and 
after a week, at my request, he visited it again, 
to observe what they had accompHshed in one 
week. After another week, he visited us again, of 
his own accord, and perhaps his confidence in 
his own superiority, in his teacher, and in his line 
of instruction was somewhat shaken, perhaps not. 
During the last two weeks of his continuance in 
school, he became a regular member of my Greek 
class, and at the close of the sixth week of the 
term, when he was leaving for his school-work, he 
freely declared that the class in the Normal, under 
Normal instruction, was more advanced in the 
practical knowledge of the Greek language than 
he would have been under his college training in 
the whole forty weeks of the college year. Such 
exemplifications of college and boarding-school 
instruction and discipline were frequently, more 
or less every term, thrown upon us, in the Nor- 
mal. Scarcely a term passes now that we do not 
receive individuals from some college or State 
Normal School from different parts of the Union, 
One year of college instruction, for the most part, 
enables those who come here from college life to 
enter our classes which have been under instruc- 
tion one term of ten weeks, and a like proportion 
holds good for longer periods. 

This kind of "let-alone" management, which 

redeemed Miss N , has not, I admit, worked 

successfully in all cases. Some years ago, 'we had 



312 REMINISCENCES. • 

a young lady of about nineteen years, brought to 
us by her mother from Cincinnati, with the infor- 
mation that the daughter had been expelled from 
one of the ladies' colleges at Oxford, and that she 
brought her to us in the hope that under our man- 
agement her daughter would be reformed, and 
would relieve her of her continued and increasing 
anxiety for her welfare. The young lady was as- 
signed to a room in the Lyceum with another 
worthy girl, from Indianapolis. There were about 
twenty young ladies rooming in the Lyceum, be- 
sides several young men. I was occupying the 
lower story of the building as my family residence. 
Of course, these young ladies felt themselves more 
or less under our personal supervision. This Cin- 
cinnati girl, Miss Winans, I shall call her, very 
soon developed her boarding-school training by 
forming the acquaintance of the young men of 
town. She went so far as to invite one of these 
young men to her room; her roommate, however, 
being present. One of the young ladies who was 
disturbed by this breach of decorum, as she under- 
stood it, brought word to my wife, that this "town 
boy," as the girls called him, was permitted to 
visit one of the girls in the building in her own 
room, being invited evidently by the young lady 
herself. My wife took occasion, in her gentle, 
motherly way, not to reproach Miss Winans, or 
to scold her, or anything of the kind ; but to speak 
of the impropriety of her course, and of the preju- 
dice she 'would bring upon herself, even among the 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 313 

young ladies in the house, by pursuing that course 
of conduct. Miss Winans declared that it was a 
mere accident, she had not intended that the young 
man should go to her room, and it would not 
happen again. Leaving my wife, she ran up-stairs, 
and went around to all the rooms and to nearly all 
the girls in the building, and boasted of the ease 
with which she had got around the "old lady;" 
saying that the "old woman" was perfectly soft 
and green — she had not had so much to do with 
wild girls as some of her previous teachers had. 
Now, there were two courses of discipline to be 
pursued with this young lady. We were well 
aware that she had little sympathy. In fact, only 
one girl in the house approved of her conduct, 
even to her face. The one course was to take 
stringent measures, and put Miss Winans under 
the same regime that had resulted in her expulsion 
from the Oxford Seminary — in other words, to 
make an example of her in public, and to scold 
her in private, the very common method of deal- 
ing with such cases in most schools and colleges. 
The other method was to convince the other young 
ladies and students generally, that we were more 
anxious to save the young lady by patience, and 
submitting to her caprices and misconduct, than 
we were to vindicate our own characters for rigfor- 
ous administration of discipline. Under the one 
plan it was plain to me, that we, instead of help- 
ing the girl, would have made her case still worse, 
by exciting the sympathy of the whole school in 



314 REMINISCENCES. 

her behalf against our authority. By the second 
plan, we succeeding in securing the sympathy of 
every pupil, at least, in favor of proper conduct, 
and in full approval of our patience and kindness 
in bearing with the girl in spite of her wayward- 
ness and boast that she was coming it over us sa 
easily. It is not to be assumed here by any means 
that we permitted the girl to pursue her own 
course, and in her wickedness to run over fellow- 
students and her teachers, and thus to taunt us to 
our face for our inability to manage her. After 
using all proper means, and finding that the girl 
was too far gone, had been too thoroughly trained 
in escapades and night-walkings and other im- 
proprieties, and her case becoming utterly intolera- 
ble to the other young ladies in the building, I 
wrote to her mother to come and take her away. 
Whatever became of the young lady after that, I 
am unable to say. I only heard of her afterward 
as a waiter girl in a restaurant. 

During the twelfth year, 1867, the number of 
pupils enrolled was 75 1 ; teachers, 1 1 ; graduates 
in Scientific Class, 19; in Classic Class, 7; Business 
Course, 71. Up to this time, I had purchased six 
buildings for dormitories: Lyceum, Deuterian, 
Tertian, Tetartian, Pentonian and Hexonian. The 
town of Lebanon supplied the Academy and 
Washington Hall for the use of the school. During 
these first eleven years, the Normal School was 
managed under a definite code of laws adopted at 
the beginning of every session by a vote of the 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 31$ 

Students, who, in voting for them, pledged them- 
selves to sustain them by their compHance and 
influence. As individuals arrived, they pledged 
themselves also to the same rules. The growing 
prosperity of the school under these rules would 
seem to, have warranted their permanence, but as 
continued relaxation in the rigor of discipline gave 
better results year by year, I decided to drop all 
former positive law and depend entirely upon the 
good-will of the students ; in other words, upon 
the prevailing, popular feeling. The results 
justified the plan. Since that time, the popular 
sentiment has been in favor of order and diligence. 
This popular sentiment is sustained by the instru- 
mentality of general exercises, of the monthly 
reunions, by the daily prayer-meeting, and by the 
interest always developed by the teachers em- 
ployed in the management of their class recitations 
and drills, and by the free and genial intercourse 
of teachers and students in their meetings and 
greetings outside of class relations. 

The chief reason, in any school or college, 
why popular feeling is found to be in favor of the 
violation, or at least in sympathy with the violator 
of good order, is in the servile position in which 
students are placed by the administration of law 
and discipline, and by the useless exactions and 
penalties imposed to secure diligent study. Since 
I have tried both plans, that of exacting study by 
pledges and penalties on the one hand, and by de- 
pending exclusively upon the interest excited by 



3l6 REMINISCENXES. 

the teachers in their classes and otherwise, it 
seems to me altogether erroneous to impose laws 
on the large majority who, in any institution, will 
prefer to be right and do right, for the sake of 
controlling a very small minority who may prefer 
to do wrong. Since abandoning the idea of govern- 
ment altogether in the ordinary sense of the term, 
and relying upon management for good order and 
diligence, the popular sentiment here has .been 
increasingly effective and controlling in its re- 
sults. Private remonstrance with students, for 
want of diligence or for other derelictions, is very 
seldom necessary. From the first, no memoriz- 
ing of definitions, rules, or other matter contained 
in the text-books, has been required. That kind 
of thoroughness which recognizes only the mastery 
of the precise words of the text-book in prepara- 
tion for the recitations and examinations, we have 
ever held as abominable, as incompatible with the 
genuine love of study, and subversive of that gen- 
eral class interest which makes hard work excit- 
ing, fascinating, easy. I had always depended 
mainly on this class interest in study, for good 
order and decorum, both in school management 
and class management. I never tolerated, much 
less demanded, that kind of thoroughness which 
makes a verbal knowledge of the text-book the 
test or standard, so prevalent in most schools and 
colleges, nor did I ever depend on examinations, 
quarterly or annual, for giving any desirable or 
healthy stimulus to vigorous effort. So much 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 317 

skinning and coaching, and so many other dis- 
honest tricks spring up necessarily with these 
college examinations in special text-books, that I 
consider the whole system vicious, and as training 
the student to shifts, expedients, deception and 
laziness, rather than honest, earnest work for the 
love of it as a life habit. I had always held it as a 
sine qua non in all correct teaching, that the teacher 
must be thoroughly in love with his business, and 
absorbingly interested in the subject taught, for 
how can a teacher excite a love in others for that 
for which he has no affection himself? My assist- 
ant teachers, all of whom I trained in the natural 
method of beginning every subject with the known, 
tangible and visible, and thus leading by easy 
stages to the unknown, from the concrete and 
sensible to the abstract and rational, succeeded 
for the most part in sustaining, each in his own 
work, that interest generally pervading the entire 
management of the school. This method never 
admits of following any text-book implicitly, and 
yet, text-books have, for the most part, been used 
as a necessary means of guiding the first efforts in 
class-study independent of the teacher, tending to- 
ward that stage in which the student becomes 
independent of his text-book altogether. This 
method involves, necessarily, the use of illustra- 
tions of every kind compatible with the subject in 
hand, and is the true object-teaching method, or 
in other words — the true "Normal Method" of 
teaching every branch. This has been the method 



3l8 REMINISCENCES. 

of this institution from its origin, but improve- 
ments have been continually made, as no method 
can be "Normal" which is not making improve- 
ments upon itself continually. The first improve- 
ment was in passing from one text-book to the 
use of two or more. The immediate object of this 
was to break up the inordinate respect for the 
authority of the text-book, and to incite more ex- 
tended and thorough research in study. The sec- 
ond improvement was in opening a general library 
of reference books to the free use of all students. 
The third improvement was in the use of outlines 
as a means of thorough investigation. Outlines 
were for many years prepared by the teachers, and 
copied by the pupils at the conclusion of the dis- 
cussion of any branch, e.g., Mechanics in Physics, 
or Gases in Chemistry, or Equations in Algebra. 
More recently, outlines are made by the pupils 
themselves, and in the emulation excited in busi- 
ness appearance, exhaustive investigation, and 
logical arrangement, in original or selected defini- 
tions, in original exemplifications and illustrations, 
these exercises prove to be a most healthful and 
permanent incitement, always cumulative in their 
disciplinary results upon the minds and habits of 
all who engage in their preparation. The free use 
of a full library is a necessary condition to any 
success in producing such outlines. It may be 
claimed, possibly, that this study in outlining, can 
give the student only the bare bones of a science, 
and that it can never improve the expression of a 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 3I9 

pupil's thought, or prepare him for any thorough 
discussion of the subject, or for any desirable posi- 
tion' in life. The facts, however, are all against 
these assumptions. By proper adjuvant manage- 
ment, we find that exhaustive thoroughness in 
discussion is its immediate and always inevitable 
result, as these outlines are always followed by 
searching and thorough class discussion of all 
manner of points involved. It is found to pro- 
mote both fullness and accuracy of expression in 
technical as well as popular language. The mutual 
class criticisms connected with the elaborate re- 
ports based upon their respective outlines, as given 
by successive pupils, have been found to have a 
positive and cumulative effect in enlarging the 
speaking vocabulary of pupils thus engaged, as 
well as increasing fluency and force in delivery. 

During the fifteenth year — 1870-71 — the num- 
ber of pupils enrolled was 1,065; teachers, 15; 
classic graduates, 5; scientific graduates, 17; busi- 
ness graduates, 47. It was found that the cata- 
logue of this year contained names of pupils from 
thirteen States and one Territory, and since the 
patronage was thus shown to be national rather 
than local, it was proposed by some of the patrons 
that the name of the Institution be changed from 
the Southwestern Normal School to the National 
Normal School. This was accordingly done by a 
unanimous vote of the pupils and teachers the 
second term of the fifteenth year. During the 
sixteenth year, the number of pupils enrolled was 



320 REMINISCENCES. 

1,423; teachers, 14; classic graduates, 8; scientific 
graduates, 26 ; business graduates, 72 ; number in 
Engineering Department, 75. I purchased also 
this year several additional buildings for dormi- 
tories. These were the Heptoition, Octonian, 
Ennetian, Endetian and Decian. The citizens of 
Lebanon, more and more every year, opened their 
residences for the accommodation of students, and 
comfortable rooms were urged upon students at 
reasonable rates. Good table board was furnished 
at $2 a week by as many as six different families. 
I had, during several years, encouraged the forma- 
tion of boarding clubs. These were generally 
managed by the student who formed the club. 
Any club of six or more were accustomed to hire 
a woman to do their cooking, who generally fur- 
nished their table, furniture, etc., while they di- 
vided the expense among themselves, paying the 
woman a certain rate per week each for her labor 
and the use of her furniture. The common price 
paid a woman for such services was 40 cents per 
week each. In order, however, to reduce ex- 
penses and make club-boarding more economical 
and desirable, I organized a club in the large 
dining-room of the Lyceum, placing it in the 
charge of Mrs. Holbrook, employing, also, a 
steward to manage the accounts and the coming 
and going of all those boarding in the club. The 
club price was about $2 a week for several years 
immediately following the war. From that time 
to this, I have controlled at least one club, keep- 



EXPERIEN'CES IN LEBANOxN, OHIO. 32 I 

ing the price of board at a minimum. For several 
years it has been furnished to gentlemen for ^1.25 
a week and to ladies for ^i. This club virtually 
controls the price of board in all the other clubs 
of the town, and is only sustained for that pur- 
pose, preventing that curse in most other college 
towns — a ring or combination of those furnishing 
board by which students are charged exorbitantly. 
I am satisfied that as good board is here furnished 
as wholesome and varied, and as desirable in 
every respect, for from ^i to ;^ 1.50, as is furnished 
in other school or college towns for double these 
prices. A similar course has been pursued with 
regard to rooms for dormitories. Buildings have 
been purchased, rooms have been furnished, and 
great care has been employed to make these 
rooms comfortable, cheerful and wholesome, and 
at the same time to furnish them at the least pos- 
sible expense to the students who may desire to 
occupy them. 

It is hardly necessary to say that my chief care 
and responsibility and burden in the management 
of the Institution has been and is in the manage- 
ment of these rooms, in order to keep down the 
price of room-rent in town. It has been my 
policy always to have vacant rooms, so that any 
student can find accommodations at the adver- 
tised prices, leaving it to the judgment or taste of 
every one to occupy rooms which I furnish, or to 
select any which are offered in town. The com- 
petition thus sustained in the price of board in the 
21 



322 REMINISCENCES. 

twenty-five clubs, and also in the room-rent, has 
been so active and effective that students have 
little to complain of in their expenses here as 
compared to their expenses elsewhere. Although 
several other schools advertise less expense, we 
have tested this matter over and over again suffi- 
ciently to justify our saying that no other school, 
however managed, costs its patrons so little as the 
National Normal University. In fact, all the 
competing schools are compelled to put their tui- 
tion twenty per cent, less in order to draw stu- 
dents at all; and notwithstanding this apparent 
difference in their favor, by the management of 
every necessary expense we have always made 
this school less expensive to its patrons than any 
other. We claim, also, as we ever have, that the- 
advantages and facilities for securing a thorough 
practical education in any profession or in any 
line of business are immensely superior here to 
those of any other school established and con- 
ducted by college men. The same holds true of 
any other school established and conducted on the 
principles which I have originated and brought 
into practical service for the advantage of the 
young at large. I have found in these many 
years of experience, that it is necessary, from year 
to year, to make changes in the teachers of our 
Faculty, for the reason that, it appears without 
exception, the teachers trained here, directly or 
indirectly, sooner or later fall back, more or less, 
into the routine of the old-fashioned college plans. 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 323 

Thus it is necessary to replace those who are 
working, even here, with new impulse, as I con- 
ceive, from the fountain-head, from year to year, 
my children being the only ones who retain their 
vivacity, energy, originality and cumulative en- 
thusiasm year after year in the management of 
our classes. For this reason, chiefly, I change 
off some teachers every year. 

I find in the eighteenth year — 1873 — the num- 
ber of pupils 1,613 ; teachers, 17; classic graduates, 
7; scientific graduates, 37; business graduates, 92; 
number in Engineering Department, 97. The 
library, arranged in ten departments, for uses of 
reference, contained two thousand volumes, the 
latest publications in every department being 
added constantly ; the library being always ac- 
cessible to students and a competent librarian 
always in attendance. Much of the best study of 
the students is performed there.* 

During the year 1872, the training of the Scien- 
tific Class in natural science being under charge of 
my second son, R. H. Holbrook, and having con- 
structed a variety of articles of apparatus them- 
selves, and having made extensive collections of 
minerals and fossils, Heber initiated and carried 
through our first school exposition. About fifty 
cabinets were displayed, each containing from 
fifty to one hundred and fifty specimens of min- 
erals, fossils and other natural objects of interest, 
also many articles of apparatus made by the 
students, illustrating principles in chemistry, 

*The library now contains 5,000 volumes, arranged in fifteen 
departments. 



324 REMINISCENCES, 

pneumatics, mechanics, hydraulics, etc. Many 
of these machines exhibited displayed decided 
mechanical ingenuity, as well as a thorough 
knowledge of the principles involved. The expo- 
sition also contained many extensive and beautiful 
herbariums, the sheets of which were displayed on 
the walls; also many large and fine maps made by 
the students in geography; also many well-executed, 
drawings of objects made by the pupils ; also a num- 
ber of mechanical maps made by the Engineering" 
Class, besides a large number of exhaustive out- 
lines on rolls, rods in length. Each pupil having 
a cabinet, or any article of apparatus, was at his 
post, answering any questions proposed by vis- 
itors, giving explanations or performing experi- 
ments, as the case might be. Every subsequent 
exposition has excelled each preceding, and the 
materials in each have been entirely different 
from those in every other. Several of the cabi- 
nets, though collected mostly in the way of 
recreation and open-air exercise, have, had sums 
offered for them varying from ;^50 to ;$500 each. 
Some of the best exhibitors in these expositions 
have been ladies, they themselves having col- 
lected the specimens or constructed the apparatus. 
About this time there appeared a gentleman, in 
the short session, who had entered as a regular 
pupil, and who had evidently had the best oppor- 
tunities, and had improved them ; was polished, 
cultured, had much experience in the world, who 
was indeed in every way a gentleman, and who 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 325 

seemed to appreciate every movement in the 
classes, especially in the Training Class. At as 
early an opportunity as possible, I made it my 
privilege to form a personal acquaintance with 
the gentleman, Mr. Jones. I found that he was 
a member of the Friends' Society, that he had for 
many years been a preacher in that denomination, 
and that he had been a successful teacher of a 
Friends' boarding-school for about twenty years. 
In the course of my conversation, I ventured to 
inquire of the gentleman, after I had learned his 
position and his power, "What induced you to 
come here to our school?" He replied: "Of 
course, I came here to learn." "But, having 
been a teacher nearly as long as I have, I should 
naturally suppose that your success with the 
methods that you have adopted would have given 
you such confidence in their power and practica- 
bility, that you would hardly think it worth while 
to spend six weeks in another school for the pur- 
pose of learning other methods." "Well," said 
he, "do you remember three young ladies who 
were with you three or four years ago, by the 
name of Jones, sisters — Mary, Martha, and 
Elanor?" "Certainly, I remember them very 
well; they were excellent students, and very 
worthy young ladies ; and, not only so, but quite 
attractive in their personal appearance. What do 
you know about them> sir?" "Why, those girls 
were nieces of mine. They were left orphans 
quite young, and I had raised them and educated 



326 REMINISCENCES. 

them up to the time I sent them to your school 
in preparation for teaching as their means of sup- 
port. When they returned to me from Lebanon, 
I formed an idea of your work here, not only 
from conversation with my nieces, but from your 
publications, and resolved at my earliest oppor- 
tunity to spend a term with you, in obtaining a 
practical knowledge from my own observation and 
experience of your methods of exciting an interest 
in pupils in their studies." "Well, sir," said I, 
"have you discovered the power — learned the 
secret?" "Yes, sir, somewhat, but I am learn- 
ing more and more of it every day ; and I think 
that, by the time the term closes, I shall have 
possessed myself to a large extent of the same 
wonderful enthusiasm and energy and self-confi- 
dence that my nieces came home with." " But,"" 
said I, "was the self-confidence of your nieces in 
themselves and their methods misplaced? Did 
they not vindicate their claims to the possession 
of such qualities and gifts as would make them 
successful in their endeavors to be good teachers?"" 
"Most certainly, sir," he replied. " I secured 
schools for all of .the girls. They had never 
taught before, and their success has been such as 
I have never before witnessed, even in experi- 
enced teachers, in the management of public 
schools. And while I had some difficulty in 
obtaining schools for the girls, from the fact that 
they had no previous experience, every one of 
the three, in her first school, made an unex- 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 32/ 

pected and beautiful success. And when ques- 
tioned on their means and ways, they constantly 
affirmed that their success was attributable to 
their training in the Training Class at this insti- 
tution. I think, from the success of these girls, 
that you may safely recommend those whom 
you have trained, and who have seized the spirit 
of your methods, as being better teachers than 
the great majority of those who have been teach- 
ing for years without having enjoyed the privileges 
of your Training Class." 

I thanked the gentleman most heartily for his 
good opinion, and assured him that I hoped, as he 
became more and more familiar with the processes 
in the different classes in the institution, his judg- 
ment would be confirmed and strengthened rather 
than diminished. When he left, he voluntarily, at 
the close of the term, gave me for publication a 
very strong statement of his views and his appre- 
ciation of the work being done at this Normal 
School. This statement was published that year 
in the catalogue. 

At different times during the history of this in- 
stitution, we have been favored with visits from 
various gentlemen of good standing in different 
Normal Schools and Colleges. One President of 
a college spent a week with us, in observing the 
management of the various classes conducted by 
the different members of our Faculty. I proffered 
every opportunity for this continued observation ; 
met him daily, and, looking over our programme. 



328 REMINISCENCES. 

inquired " What classes would you like to visit to- 
day?" He selected from the general programme 
of fifty or sixty classes six or more of those he 
thought would be most useful to him in his line 
of observation. His custom was to take his place 
among the pupils of the several classes, and, with 
his note-book, to record points that he noticed in 
the management. He occasionally proposed ques- 
tions to the teacher on his line of management, 
and asked the object of such and such proceedings, 
and sometimes, in a very gentlemanly manner, 
raised a point in criticism, and stated his objection 
to the course pursued ; but teachers were instructed 
by myself to meet every reasonable requisition and 
desire of the worthy President. What use he 
ever made of his week's visit, and his continued 
and close application to th-e study of our methods, 
I am unable to say, as the institution over which 
he was presiding was even then in its last struggles 
for an existence. In my conversations with the 
gentleman, it was my opinion, although he raised 
no special objection to any of our methods, that 
it would be impossible for him, with the previous 
training he had experienced, to apply them to his 
own college government. His assumption, like 
that of most college men, w^as that boys and young 
men are necessarily sensual, and prefer idleness 
and self-indulgence to hard work and determined 
effort and self-denial. Such an assumption, or such 
an opinion, on his part would necessarily make all 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 329 

the methods practiced here useless and abortive, if 
not mischievous and destructive. 

Another interesting visitor was a Mr. B , 

from Sweden, Europe. He was sent here by the 
State Commissioner of Ohio, with a note of in- 
troduction. Mr. B stopped off a train, think- 
ing he would stay, perhaps, two or three hours, 
and pass to Cincinnati on the next train. He re- 
mained here for a week, however, and, at the end 
of that time, said he should remain longer, had he 
not an engagement in the dedication of a Swedish 
College in Minnesota, that precluded the possi- 
bility of his continuance. Our Swedish friend, 

Mr. B , pursued a course very similar to that 

of the College President, looking over the pro- 
gramme with me, and selecting those classes 
which he thought would be most interesting and 
profitable to him in the way of observation. Mr. 
B spoke English very rapidly, with consider- 
able accent, but I found him to be a man of ex- 
cellent ability, and of very broad and high-toned 
culture. After having graduated at the Univer- 
sity of Stockholm, he had spent two years or 
more in a German University. He then, as he 
informed me, had spent a year at Rome, and was 
now on a tour of observation, travel, and experi- 
ence, still pursuing this general course of educa- 
tion and culture. He was the son of one of the 
Swedish Bishops, who had the public schools of 
his diocese entirely under his own control. The 
son had been sent, at public expense, to America, 



330 REMINISCENCES. 

to gain, as far as possible, the power to improve 
the Swedish schools under his father's jurisdiction. 
He had already spent some weeks in Boston, New 
York, and Philadelphia, and had intended to spend 
a week in the Cincinnati schools, but this week was 
spent with us. Of course the questions and re- 
marks of this intelligent gentleman were in every 
case very apt, critical, and always polite, and not 
unfrequently very flattering, especially with regard 
to the management of this Institution without any 
laws. His repeated remark to me, after his day's 
work in the classes, was: "I have been watching 
and looking all the day in the classes, and in the 
recesses, for some appearance of dfsorder, or of 
disregard to good usage, and have in no case, in 
any class, or in any building, or time outside of 
the classes, discovered any tendency even of this 
kind. But, more than this," he added, at one 
time, "the perfect familiarity and equality of the 
teachers and pupils, in all their relations, both in 
their classes and out of their classes, is such as 
seems to me miraculous, impossible" (with a va- 
riety of other adjectives). "The students are 
everywhere seemingly controlled by some hidden 
influence which it is impossible for me to dis- 
cover." Our Swedish friend had, doubtless, been 
reared and educated under a weight of authority; 
but he found no such crushing or coercive influence 
in this most orderly institution that he had ever 
known, as he frequently declared. 

In answer to my inquiry, as to how much of 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 33 I 

my management he could introduce into the 
Swedish schools, his reply was: "I have a 
great number of points recorded in my note-book 
which I shall most unquestionably use when I 
return home, and take my place as deputy to my 
father in the superintendency of schools in his 
diocese. They are chiefly on the management of 
classes — as I find that management practiced here, 
always varying in every class, by every teacher, 
but ever possessed of the same spirit."* "But," 
said I, "what is the spirit, according to your view?" 
"Well, it is rather difficult for me to denominate 
it, but it does seem to me it is the spirit of mutual 
confidence and mutual respect, as far as I can get 
at it, between pupils and teachers. If I had been 
told before I came here, that there were no laws, 
I should not have come; but should have hardly 
thought it worth my time to visit an institution 
where lawlessness prevailed, as I should have then 
considered disorder and lawlessness the only prob- 
ably permanent characteristics. But I am more 
and more astonished from day to day, and from 
hour to hour, at the prevalent interest, energy, 
devotion, of the large body of pupils that crowd 
your recitation rooms or hall, or the streets of the 
town. It is a growing wonder; the more I see of 
it, the more my astonishm'ent increases. There is, 
however, one feature in your school which I shall 
not be able to take with me to Sweden, and that 
is the entire freedom of the sexes in their relation 
to each other. I shall not hesitate in attempting 



^],2 REMINISCENCES. 

any other points in management that I have here 
noticed ; but such is the established usage of our 
watchfulness over girls before their marriage, and^ 
its supposed necessity, that it would appear shock- 
ing and dangerous to bring the sexes together in 
Sweden with anything like the freedom from re- 
straint which characterizes your dealings with that 
most difficult and delicate of all human relations." 

"But, Mr. B ," said I, "perhaps i/iai is the 

secret power, more than any other, that has es- 
caped your attention — the fact that this freedom 
in the mutual relations of the sexes is of itself a 
more potent factor in the management of this In- 
stitution without laws, and without spies, and with- 
out bad results, than any other one influence that 
can be found here." "Well, is that so?" said he. 
"It is most astonishing of all, that, in Europe, 
we fear the worst results, and, indeed, not unfre- 
quently find them, in any relaxation of watchful- 
ness over young ladies; yet, here with you, you 
proclaim what is our difficulty to be the cause of 

your marvelous success." "Well, Mr. B , " 

said I, "while you find it necessary, in Europe, 
to watch your girls (and what do you watch /or?), 
we find them, in this Institution, the true source and 
chief power in sustaining propriety and courtesy. 
The ladies are left entirely without any guardian- 
ship, other than that which exists in their own 
hearts and consciences, implanted there by their 
home training. They are the guardians and ser- 
vitors of order and propriety." "Do you never 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 333 

have any difficulty between the sexes? Never 
have any scandals, any escapades, any elope- 
ments?" "Why, no, sir; there is no occasion for 
anything- of the kind, for I have a standing invi- 
tation for any that wish to get married to come to 
my house, and I will offer them every facility in 
accomplishing so worthy a purpose. Several dif- 
ferent persons have accepted, at different times, 
my invitation, while numbers of others have pre- 
ferred to be married in the home of the bride." 
"But do the parents never object to these ar- 
rangements of their daughters so far from their 
control and knowledge?" "Oh, I have never 
known of any strenuous objection from parents, 
though probably many fears and doubts are expe- 
rienced in regard to the choice of their daughters; 
but I have never known one match that has not 
met, sooner or later, the fullest approval of the 
parents, or that has not proven a happy choice." 
In connection with this conversation, and the 
interest which our Swedish visitor took in this 
matter of the freedom of the sexes, and the fact 
of these school alliances, it occurred to me that 
his visit to America was not exclusively for the 
purpose of ascertaining the peculiar advantages 
that might exist in American schools, and so, 
Yankee-like, I proceeded along the line of inter- 
rogation somewhat in this way: "Mr. B , I 

understand that you have come to this country to 
visit schools?" "Yes, sir." "Well, you have 
told me, furthermore, that the Swedish Govern- 



334 REMINISCENCES. 

mentsent you here for the purpose?" "Yes, sir, 
I was sent here by the Swedish Government, at the 
soHcitation of my father." "I suppose," said I, 
"this is the only object you have in view in visit- 
ing America— that you may introduce any im- 
provements you may find into the schools under 
your father's supervision?" "Yes — not entirely 
so, either. I had other objects in view." "I 
suppose the general advantage of travel is one. 
Since you have become familiar with all European 
usages, you thought it possible there might be 
some wild, strange, uncivilized practices in America 
that would be interesting and amusing?" "Yes, 
sir; but I have found my sojourn in America 
exceedingly profitable, for it places me in a new 
relation with regard to the practices and usages 
of my own country. I see many things that I 
approve more fully than I could before I came. 
There are many other things that I would gladly 
have radically changed." "But you have no 
other object in coming to America than the ones 
you said — visiting schools, and the general advan- 
tages of travel?" "Well, yes, sir; I have sev- 
eral objects." "Well," said I, "there is no 
woman in the case, is there?" "Well, what 
makes you think so?" "Well, I don't know 
that I did think so ; I only asked the question. 
Let me see, did you meet any American lady in 
Germany, or Sweden, or somewhere?" "Oh, yes, 
I met a great many." "Well, yes; but didn't 
you meet some very beautiful maiden — different 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 335 

from the rest? I think you a very expert hn- 
guist, and that you speak the Enghsh language 
very well for a person who has, been speaking it 
but six months." "I had a most excellent 
teacher," said he; "a. young lady." "Well, 
will you tell me who that young lady was?" 
"Well, yes; I don't know that I have any ob- 
jection." "And where did you find her?" 
"Well, we spent a year in Rome together." 
"And you taught her Swedish, and she taught 
you English; and you both learned Italian to- 
gether?" "Yes, sir." "Well, which talked 
the best?" "She had been in Italy a year be- 
fore me, and she talked the best." "And so 
you have come to America to renew your ac- 
quaintance?" "Yes." "And you are not going 
to take her back home to Sweden, are you?" 
"I expect to." "There, I understand it all; 
it's all right and clear now." "But," said he, 
"what led you to think there is a woman in the 
case?" " Oh, I don't know; there is a woman in 
almost every case that is desirable in this world." 
" Well, " said he, " that is so. " 

A year afterward, I received a paper from Stock- 
holm, most beautiful in its mechanical appearance, 
together with a letter from a Swedish lady, who 
liad read an article in it, stating that she had be- 
come very much interested in our work from this 
article, written by Mr. B — — , and that she had 
been very anxious to visit us* after havine: read 



*Miss Cecile Gohl. She is now with us, as a student. 



2,3^ REMINISCENCES. 

the article. She also stated that she sent the 
paper to me, thinking that I would be interested 

in the statement which Mr. B gave of his visit 

to Lebanon, and the National Normal University. 
It was written in English, although the lady was 
evidently a Swede. I called upon our teacher of 
German, a Danish lady, who translated the article 
in the paper for me. She demurred at first, say- 
ing that Swedish was quite different from Danish, 
and she had never studied Swedish. If it were 
the Norwegian language, she would understand it 
perfectly, as the Swedish and Norwegian books 
were used in both countries. But she made the 

attempt, and succeeded in translating Mr. B 's 

article after some hesitation, for which she apolo- 
gized by stating, that she had first to translate the 
Swedish into Danish, and then the Danish into 
English. We found it a very interesting and cir- 
cumstantial detail of our plans, and of our peculiar 
management of our classes. The article, thus trans- 
lated, was afterward published in our monthly. 

HOW SICKNESS HAS BEEN MANAGED. 

During the first several years of school it was 
customary for us — Melissa and me — to take any 
that were ill to our own home, and provide for them 
without making any charge. When, after several 
years, a young man, belonging to a wealthy 
family, had, from his own self-abuse and contin- 
ued disregard of his health and my expostulations, 
brought upon himself a typhoid fever, and we had 
taken him to our home, as was our custom, and 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 33/ 

had taken care of him for about six weeks, board- 
ing his father and sister also, and they, referring 
to my advertisement, decHned contributing any- 
thing toward the long and expensive siege that we 
had undergone with him, and the expenses we 
had incurred for watchers, besides that of boarding 
his friends, I concluded that this plan would 
hardly be feasible any longer, and withdrew the ad- 
vertisement, and made other arrangements than to 
take the sick into my own house and care for them, 
especially as the weight of responsibility and care 
and labor and anxiety and watchfulness came 
upon my wife, who was sufficiently laden, surely, 
with other cares. Now, it so happened that, after 
this arrangement, we had little sickness for a year 
or two ; but, then, a married woman, whose hus- 
band was attending school, was down withi 
continued illness for many weeks. She had 
exhausted the patience and health of the young 
lady pupils in the school, who had taken care of 
her. No other provision had been made in her 
several relapses. My wife interfered in her man- 
agement several times, and, following her instruc- 
tions, the patient had several times partially 
recovered, but she had fallen back by the same 
disregard of hygiene and the same imprudence 
that first made her sick. Thus she had several 
times called in medical advice, and at last had 
died in spite of, or, perhaps, in consequence of, 
medical advice and prescription. The husband 
secured the attendance of six young men — Normal 
22 



338 REMINISCENCES. 

students — to take the remains of his wife to her 
home burying-ground, in a neighboring county. 
In consequence three of the young men were 
taken down with the typhoid fever. Wife took 
much of the responsibihty of nursing them. I 
secured watchers — chiefly from among the stu- 
dents. As a result of this long siege my wife 
herself came down with the same fever and barely 
escaped with her life, from the unusual fatigues 
and anxiety connected with her services to these 
young men. I then came to the conclusion that 
it would be necessary to say in public that, while 
we as a family would do whatever we could for 
the sick, it would be necessary for those who were 
suffering to employ watchers and obtain medical 
advice. In the few cases of sickness which fol- 
lowed this announcement we remitted no care or 
trouble in behalf of the sick ; but the matter was 
taken up -by the daily prayer-meeting, and since 
that time a committee has been appointed each 
successive term to announce to the prayer-meeting 
any cases of sickness or any need of watchers, 
and, save in a very few cases, students have been 
kindly and generously cared for by their fellow- 
students. Previous to this present year, the thir- 
tieth (1885), there have been but eight deaths in 
the Institution among the 35,000 who have at- 
tended. As often as every other year the measles 
have been brought into the school, and when 
once introduced, they have never been checked 
until nearly every person in school who has not 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 339 

before had the measles has been attacked. Only 
two deaths from that cause have occurred previous 
to this year (1885). Five times during the history 
of the school the smallpox has appeared in town, 
or in the school, and in no one of these cases has 
it proved fatal or extended beyond the person 
who brought it here. I have remarked elsewhere 
that the excessive labor, anxiety and loss of 
sleep to which my wife was subjected in the care of 
the sick undoubtedly shortened her life many 
years. No expostulations on the part of her hus- 
band or children could deter her from taking a 
deep and personal interest in every sufferer in the 
school. 

It is still customary for students to volunteer 
their services in case of sickness. Arrangements 
are still made in the prayer-meeting, through com- 
mittees, to report cases of sickness and to provide 
watchers as far as may be possible. However, in 
all cases of protracted sickness, parents or other 
friends are sent for, and the case is then transferred 
to them. 

The exceptional health of the school through 
these thirty years, the few deaths that have oc- 
curred, bear testimony to the entire healthfulness 
of the locality and to the effectiveness of the 
liygienic arrangements in the Institution. 

MANAGEMENT OF WAYWARD BOYS. 

As the reputation of the Institution extends, 
and as it is more and more insisted that there is 



340 REMINISCENCES. 

less of dissipation and waste of time and of money 
here than in any other school, boys who were 
doubtless unmanageable at home have been sent 
here for the benefit of the moral influence sup- 
posed to be exerted here by both teachers and 
pupils. We have never claimed to be a "reform 
school," nor do I ever encourage parents or guard- 
ians to send any boys or girls here for instruction 
or moral improvement who are unmanageable at 
home. I have no fears of their influence in any 
direction upon the prosperity of the school, but 
the care and responsibihty of one wayward, 
thoughtless, not to say reckless, boy, as any caa 
see, is more wearing and exhausting than the en- 
tire management of the Institution in all the inter- 
ests and diversity of employes and employment. 
I have, however, refused no one who has applied 
for admission ; at the same time I am careful to 
state to every parent or guardian that I can not 
personally give care and attention or watchfulness 
to any such boy. If, however, the parent or 
guardian deems best to send or leave a child or 
ward under the general influences of the institu- 
tion, not expecting me to watch personally over 
the diligence and good behavior of the pupil, I 
can accept the pupil with the understanding that 
the parent or guardian shall be informed whenever 
such pupil demonstrates that he can not be trusted 
with his own interests, and needs closer personal 
attention than I or any other teacher can bestow 
in his behalf. I have in some cases, however. 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 34I 

been exceedingly tried, and have had my hopes 
and expectations in regard to some special boys, 
in whom I had a deep interest, on their own 
account as well as on account of their parents, 
continuously baffled; and after becoming discour- 
aged time and again, I have still, at the request of* 
the parents, held on and permitted the boy to 
have another trial, and still another. In some 
such cases the influences of the school have at last 
overcome the bad habits of the boy. In some 
other cases we have not been successful, and the 
boy has been withdrawn from school by his parent 
or guardian without any public expulsion or dis- 
grace. I could now enumerate several worthy 
business men of the former class, who, after 
several trials, have at last come to themselves, 
gone to work of their own accord and become 
interested in their own well-being and have been 
reformed — that is, made over again by the healthy ■ 
moral and social influences brought to bear upon 
them by the power of their teachers and fellow- 
pupils. 

EXPERIMENTS IN PHYSICAL TRAINING. 

We have had a continuous session for the most 
part, from the first year of the Institution, of 
forty-eight or fifty weeks in the year, and our 
school exercises continue from 7 a. m. to 8 or 
9 P. M., with an intermission of an hour at noon, 
and half an hour in the evening. It would seem 
necessary that students who thus voluntarily and 
earnestly apply themselves so many weeks in the 



342 REMINISCENCES, 

year, and so many hours in the day, should, in 
order to retain their health and vigor, take at least 
one hour a day in physical exercises and recrea- 
tion. I have initiated various forms of exercise 
at different times, at very considerable expense. 
During the second year of the Institution, I ob- 
tained and placed upon the Academy grounds, a 
thorough outfit of heavy gymnastic apparatus, 
and made such arrangements that every pupil in 
attendance could profit by the use of this appara- 
tus. A sufficient amount of exhortation and of 
expostulation was given, to induce, if possible, 
every student to remit his mental application at 
least one hour in the day for this kind of physical 
training. After a few weeks, however, it became 
evident that the apparatus was not visited regu- 
larly by any pupil in attendance, and that no one 
at any time spent an hour, or a quarter of an 
hour, continuously in its use. It was eventually suf- 
fered through neglect, to go to wreck, the students 
all being too much interested in their studies to 
yield an hour, or, indeed, any time regularly, to 
the recuperation which such exercise might be 
supposed to afford. Some two or three years sub- 
sequently, a light gymnastic apparatus was brought 
here by Chas. S. Royce, and under his training; 
and inspiration a large proportion of the school, 
ladies and gentlemen, were induced to give an 
hour a day to the use of this apparatus, and re- 
ceived, no doubt, many of them, much advantage 
from this kind of training. When, however, the 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 343 

incitement of the trainer was removed, and the 
pupils Avere expected or requested to purchase 
the apparatus, each for himself, and were thrown 
into groups for practice, it was found that com- 
paratively few felt it necessary to avail themselves 
of this kind of relief from excessive application to 
their studies. The apparatus, then, for light 
gymnastics was laid aside, forgotten, no one feel- 
ing that he had time to make any regular or satis- 
factory use of the apparatus, even after he had 
been trained. 

My next endeavor for physical training, a year 
or two intervening, was to introduce base-ball, and 
to divide the school into nines according to their 
times of recitation. The ladies, in sunbonnets and 
gloves, were permitted, if they chose, to form 
themselves into separate nines, or to join the 
nines of the young men, when they could con- 
veniently do so. As a novelty, this plan seemed 
to be accepted, and promised to offer more con- 
tinuous advantages than had been experienced 
from various previous attempts, but it soon became 
apparent that the interest was waning, and com- 
plaints were brought in that the nines were not 
full, and that the game, here and there, was pre- 
vented by the absence of one, two, or three from 
the nine at its appointed time. I then suggested 
in any such case that two or three nines should 
consolidate. This worked for awhile, but the 
nines soon became so few and so uncertain, and 
so few could be found upon the playground at 



344 REMINISCENCES. 

any one hour, that a game was impossible, and 
this plan fell into desuetude, except, perhaps, 
with a few boys combining with town boys, who 
spent most of their time in base-ball rather than 
in their studies. So, for these reasons base-ball 
was laid aside. 

The next experiment was in the way of croquet, 
and arrangements were made by which every 
student could have his croquet-ground, his croquet 
set, and his partners in the game at a definite 
time in the day accommodated to his recitations 
and studies. The experiment with croquet con- 
tinued longer than any preceding one, especially 
as more ladies engaged in the several sets. But, 
before the season had gone by, very few were 
found availing themselves of the opportunity for 
exercise in croquet. Here and there, now and 
then, more and more frequently, this individual 
or that found it necessary to take extra time to 
get up a lesson, to write an essay, to prepare for 
a debate, or to make out an outline, or to get 
some other exercise ready to meet the demands 
of his own judgment in his regular school-work. 
Croquet gradually disappeared. 

About six years ago, Mr. C. S. Royce removed 
his "Health Lift" apparatus to Lebanon, and being 
furnished with rooms at my expense, offered his 
services to any who needed them, and was at first 
patronized by quite a number of students as well 
as citizens. After remaining two years, however, 
the attendance of students at his rooms, although 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 345 

all who attended acknowledged the positive bene- 
fit they had derived from the " Health Lift," be- 
came so meager, that Mr. Royce was willing to 
accept an offer from a Water Cure to remove his 
apparatus there. This was' my last experiment in 
endeavoring to give relief to the continued and 
excited application to hard study, which our 
Normal Course requires for its highest success. A 
comparison of our curriculum with the curricula 
of almost all other colleges, will show that a 
student accomplishes as much in one year, pro- 
vided he meets the demands of our curriculum, as 
is accomplished in three years in most colleges. 
Now, this is not an assumption. It is not brought 
about by any " hot-bed process," or by any secret 
or patent-right operation; it is accomplished by 
the determined, earnest, voluntary work of every 
pupil here who keeps up with his classes and who 
receives a diploma from this Institution. Such 
work as is here ordinarily done, can never be done 
by any one who works from any other motive than 
his own choice, under the stimulus of his excited 
ambition, and under the energy of his own aroused 
faculties. The question then would rise from those 
who are not familiar with our operations, " How 
is it possible that while so many in colleges break 
down in their health without one-half the intel- 
lectual work that is accomplished here, — in the 
same length of time, the general health of those 
in attendance at the Normal is so unvarying, and 
in almost every individual case improved from 



34^ REMINISCENCES. 

the time he or she enters to the time he or she 
leaves?" My answer is: That college students 
rarely break down from hard study. The hard 
students are those who generally retain their 
health. Here, the change in the character of the 
mental application is so arranged as to make every 
study and exercise a rest and recreation for every 
other study and exercise. Again, our dormitories 
and recitation-buildings, about twenty in number, 
are so situated in the town of Lebanon, that a 
great deal of out-of-door walking is necessitated 
by the distance of the several buildings from each 
other. From the general habits and discipline of 
the school, and from the individual energy of the 
students, and the necessity of the utmost economy 
of time in passing from one class to another, these 
walks in open air are always necessarily of the 
most lively and exciting character. The step is 
very rapid, and the company is frequently that 
of the other sex in the walk, and the circumstances 
and environments attending these walks are gen- 
erally such that a new Normal vigor seems to be 
roused in both gentlemen and ladies in this kind 
of jolly performance. Again, during the spring, 
summer and autumn months, sections are formed 
for collecting fossils, minerals, specimens from the 
strata and bowlders, over a wide area in this 
neighborhood. Sections in botany are also formed 
by other pupils, who make their excursions to- 
gether in groups, generally of both sexes, and 
thus new interest in study, new incitement in 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 34/ 

social converse, and new powers of observation 
are aroused, all of which tend to the promotion of 
physical and mental vigor and social vivacity. Not 
only so, scarcely an exercise takes place in the In- 
stitution in which both sexes are not present, and 
participate in the work of the hour. Whatever 
most physicists, physiologists or fossil doctors 
may think concerning the mutual influence of the 
sexes, it is my judgment from years and years of 
observation, carefully compared and generalized, 
that such associations should be carefully utilized 
in the education of either sex, whether we look at 
their physical powers, their intellectual energies 
or their moral growth, and that those who neglect 
them, reject the most potent factor in the Normal 
development of either sex. 

Not only do the sexes meet here in the regular 
work of class-recitation and class-drill, and all these 
walks and excursions, exerting their mutual in- 
fluence upon each other, but they are accustomed 
to meet in regular debating sections, both sexes 
forming by preference, each of the fifty or more 
debating sections or literary societies always going 
on within the Institution. Not only so, but fre- 
quent reunions are provided for, of which the 
special object is to give the sexes, if possible, still 
better opportunities to become acquainted with 
each other, and to exercise, each upon the other, 
that subtle, social, healthful, moral influence which 
God has designed for the purity of the family, for 



34^ REMINISCENCES. 

the upbuilding of his church, and for the progress 
of society. 

Some years ago, a gentleman of wealth and 
standing, who resided on the Ohio River, brought 
his three sons from a College Preparatory School. 
Their ages were from fourteen to eighteen. He 
said he had been advised to bring the boys to 
Lebanon for a business education, and that, as 
they had no taste for literary pursuits, and as 
his own business would give them employment in 
its different departments, and, as he hoped, they 
would share his business with him, he would leave 
them in my care, willing to entrust them to my 
judgment for their business training. I inquired : 
" Mr. S , what is your idea of a suitable busi- 
ness training for your sons ?" Mr. S : "You 

may take your own course ; I should like to have 
the boys remain with you and complete their edu- 
cation in your school, and when you have carried 
them as far as you think desirable, I will then 
initiate them each in his own place in my own 
business." "But, "said I, "Mr. S , you cer- 
tainly have some preference as to the course that 
each boy may pursue in preparation for the de- 
partment of your business that you wish him to 
enter." " No, sir, I don't know that I have any 
preference. I want my boys to be intelligent, 
competent business men, able to perform any 
business or any literary work connected with any 
ordinary business transaction." "Would you like 
them to continue their study of Latin ?" "I will 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 349 

leave that, sir, entirely to you. If, in your opinion, 
Latin will prepare them better for buying and sell- 
ing goods, and for managing men under their con- 
trol, or improve their judgment in deciding the 
value of landed property, or stocks, or merchan- 
dise, then you will please let them continue in 
Latin just as long as you may desire." "You 
would like to have them prosecute their mathe- 
matics probably through the entire course?" 
"Yes, sir; if, according to your judgment, the 
training that you give in mathematics will make 
them more ready in calculation, and more acute 
in business transactions, you will please give them 
just so much and just so thorough a training in 
mathematics, as in your judgment will be useful." 
" Would you like them to study book-keeping?" 
" No, sir, if you please ; it is the only study that 
.1 think would be of no special use to my boys in 
preparation for the different forms of business that 

I expect them to enter." "Why, Mr, S , 

your views of a business education are somewhat 
peculiar. I had supposed that of course you 
would want them familiar with the management 
of accounts, and able to master and control any 
set of books whatever." " No, sir, if you please, 
don't let my boys study book-keeping ; anything 
else according to your judgment. I have had so 
much trouble in my business in attempting to 
train young men to take charge of different sets of 
books involved in different departments of my 
business, who have come with their diplomas from 



350 REMINISCENCES. 

commercial colleges, that I have, perhaps, a preju- 
dice against book-keeping in any of its forms. I 
have never succeeded in training commercial col- 
lege graduates into the safe and intelligent charge 
of any set of books in any line of my business." 
With these remarks of my worthy patron, Mr. 
S , I assumed the responsibility of the busi- 
ness training of the three boys. The eldest, whom 
I shall call George, was, by nature sedate, indus- 
trious, and persistent in any work or study in 
which he felt it was right for him to engage. His 
success in all the different lines of study, com- 
prising a thorough course of mathematics, a 
familiarity with the classics, with a mastery of 
English literature, with the power of analysis and 
expression in English composition, was from the 
first satisfactory to his teachers, and attractive to 
himself. Without the consent of his father, how- 
ever, but according to his own preference, he took 
up, in due time, the study of book-keeping, and 
mastered it in all its varieties, principles and 
applications so entirely, that when, after three 
years, he left us, he was placed in charge of the 
books of his father's bank, and continues to the 
present time in charge of an immense business, in 
which a bank, iron-works, coal mining, and a rail- 
road are involved. I have never heard any 
complaint from his father that his training in book- 
keeping was any disadvantage to his education. 
The second son was more volatile in his disposi- 
tion, and less inclined to persistent effort in any 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 35 I 

direction ; a young man of fine personal appear- 
ance, of amiable disposition, and rather unusual 
intellectual shrewdness, but seemingly unable to 
bring his energies to bear in any given direction 
for any great length of time. In his desire to cor- 
rect his own failings, it was customary for him, 
term after term, to make new resolutions, and 
take up more studies than were desirable, and pur- 
sue them for a few days, or a few weeks, as the 
case might be, when, being attracted by social di- 
vertisements or other outside influences, and hav- 
ing an abundance of money at his control, he just 
as often relaxed and relaxed, dropping one study 
after another, until, again and again, before the 
close of the term of ten weeks, he found himself 
with one study, or perhaps out of all his classes. 
This course of procedure continued for almost two 
years, when at last, he came to himself, and 
seemed to realize that he had accomplished little 
for himself in comparison with what he ought, 
and that his preparation for life was, in a large 
measure, defeated by his want of persistence and 
grit, and by his too-easily yielding to this fancy or 
that. At the beginning of the third year, he 
made a firm and earnest resolution that he would 
retrieve his character, and hold on to any line of 
conduct, study or work that I would advise him 
to pursue. He never again failed in his purpose, 
and that year, his third, was a splendid success. 
He left us, as I believed, a man who would accom- 
plish a great work in any direction, and in any 



352 REMINISCENCES. 

kind of business in which he should engage. I 
have not been disappointed. He is a successful 
business man, and manages, independently of his 
father, an extensive business of merchandise and 
manufacture combined. The third son left us 
on account of failing health before his business 
course was completed. So far as I know, however, 
he is a worthy and successful citizen, engaged 
with his father, managing some department of his 
business. All of the sons, before they left here, 
took a thorough business course in our Business 
Department, aside from other studies which, in 
my judgment, would make them more intelligent 
and efficient business men. I bring up this ex- 
ample to show that the meager, narrow training 
given by most commercial colleges, is the worst 
possible preparation for a successful business life. 
In my opinion, to enter upon the immense and 
intense competition now raging in every kind of 
business, a young man, with or without capital, 
needs a good education in the broad sense, thus 
feeling himself competent to meet intelligent men, 
and to hold his position against all odds. On the 
other hand, the preparation for business which 
commercial colleges, so far as I know, are adver- 
tising, must be extended, corrected, and for the 
most part forgotten, before the young man can ob- 
tain any paying position, even as an employe in 
any business of any considerable extent or im- 
portance. 

During the time that these young gentlemen 



EXPERIENXES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 353 

were here in training for their business life, there 
came a man from one of the Cincinnati commercial 
colleges to Lebanon, and gave a lecture in the 
Town Hall, upon the especial advantages which 
he declared, would follow from the business train- 
ing in the institution of which he was the propri- 
etor. A farmer boy in attendance at our school, 
was induced by the representations of this com- 
mercial college man, to enter there at the close of 
the term with us. How long he continued there 
and what he studied, I am not able to say, but 
some nine months afterward he returned to Leba- 
non, and reported his history for the nine months 
in Cincinnati, in language somewhat like this : 
"I entered the commercial college a few days 
after I left Lebanon, and continued there until I 
received my diploma. My expenses in cash — 
not all, of course, stric'tly necessary — were about 
;^6oo; but when I received my diploma, with some 
others, and a public occasion was made of the 
conferring of diplomas, I imagined that my fortune 
was secured, and that I was then ready to reap 
the immediate rewards of my training. I received 
the highest praise for my diligence in study and 
for the mastery of all that was taught in the com- 
mercial college. I had been assured by the 
gentleman in his lecture in Lebanon, and from 
time to time, as I went on in my study, that I 
would find no difficulty in securing a good posi- 
tion immediately upon my graduation from this 
commercial college. A few days after my gradu- 
23 



354 REMINISCENXES. 

ation, taking my diploma in its case, I started out 
on Third Street to find a position. To every ap- 
plication that I made, in every business-house, 
there was some objection presented, or some diffi- 
culty raised, or some doubt expressed, so that I 
failed the first day in finding a place for work. 
On the second day, I took Fourth Street and pur- 
sued a similar course, and somewhere along the 
line of application, some gentleman kindly told 
me that he thought if I would leave my diploma 
at home, I would be more likely to get a position ; 
but so long as I made the diploma the ground of 
my recommendation, he presumed that I would 
meet with very little encouragement. I had pre- 
viously come to the same conclusion, that the ob- 
jections and doubts must arise from some one 
cause connected with my personality. The next 
day, I started out without my diploma, but can- 
vassed other streets, went to other business- 
houses. The difference of my reception was at 
once manifest. Knowing from my appearance 
that I was a country boy, I was met with confi- 
dence and Avith encouragement, but no sufficient 
salary was offered for such services as a country 
boy would be able to render in a business-house 
in a city; but in several places, I was assured that 
if I would commence at the bottom of the busi- 
ness and work up, I would, in the course of time, 
obtain a good position, as country boys, ignorant 
of city practices, were always in demand. I am 
now in the employment of a heavy wholesale es- 



EXPERIENCES IN" LEBANON, OHIO. 355 

tablishment, at wages barely sufficient to pay my 
necessary expenses, but I am encouraged to feel 
that I am giving satisfaction, and that I shall 
eventually rise to a higher position, and make my- 
self necessary to the establishment. At least, I 
am making every effort to accomplish this end.". 
A few months ago, I was met in the streets of 

Cincinnati by a young man, Mr. R , who had 

graduated in our Business Department. He came 
to me with great cordiality, and, at once, after 
passing the compliments, said: "Mr. Holbrook, 
do you remember what an effort you made with 
me to induce me to extend my education beyond 
grammar, and arithmetic, and book-keeping?" 
"I do, indeed, Mr, R , most assuredly, re- 
member all about it. I have had the same con- 
flict with a great many other young men, endeav- 
oring to elevate and broaden their views as to a 
necessary preparation for an ordinary business 
life. The narrowness and meagerness of business 
preparation has become scT general, through the 
advertisements and practices of commercial col- 
leges, that I feel it necessary, whenever I have 
opportunity, and I have had hundreds of cases to 
deal with, — I feel it necessary to prevent young 
men from making unworthy wrecks of worthy 
powers and opportunities." "But," said he, 
"do you remember how you urged upon me the 
necessity of studying English composition, so 
that I should be able to write a good adver- 
tisement, and a good business article for a news- 



3 $6 REMINISCENCES. 

paper, and thus become competent to manage 
the literary work of a large business establish- 
ment?" '• Most certainly I do, sir; I have done 
the same thing with hundreds of others ; with 
some I have prevailed, with others I have not." 
"But," said he, "it was that training in English 
composition, and in English literature, upon 
which you insisted, and which I for a time re- 
sisted, that has been the making of me. I am 
now engaged as chief and confidential clerk in a 
large manufacturing establishment. The corre- 
spondence, the advertising, and the literary work 
of the firm is all done by myself; and I have the 
satisfaction of knowing that the business, through 
my literary power thus exercised, is rapidly ex- 
tending, and that I am become, as it were, a 
necessary, at least, a very useful, part of the 
establishment. I commenced with a small salary, 
but it has been gradually increased, until now I 
am receiving ;^ioo per month, with some perqui- 
sites in percentages on sales, and I have the 
promise of still further advance in salary and in 
position, and I hope to be admitted before an- 
other year into partnership in the business; for all 
of which I have to thank you, Mr. Holbrook, for 
persuading me to go beyond my very limited 
ideas of a business education. My book-keeping 
I have never used, that is, in the way of keeping 
books, although the books of the establishment 
come daily under my supervision. But my liter- 
ary power has been the means of my rapid ad- 



EXPERIENCES IN LEBANON, OHIO. 35/ 

vancement and complete success, far beyond my 

brightest expectations." "Mr. R , I shall 

make use of this statement of yours as an en- 
couragement to other young men, who seem to 
feel satisfied, coming to our school, if they can 
learn to keep a set of books." " I hope you will 
do so, sir; you are welcome to make any use of 
my success that you may desire." 

Now, it is not true that every one who has com- 
pleted a thorough Business Course at this Institu- 
tion has met with the success of Mr. R . But 

it is at the same time manifest, that every one who 
has had this broader and deeper training than any 
commercial college can possibly give, has the ad- 
vantage of being able to enter any such opening 
that may occur. Yes, this literary training, in 
addition to the mathematical and business training 
proper, is immeasurably more effective and useful, 
and will prepare any young man to enter any busi- 
ness house, and apprehend more readily the great 
variety of business operations involved in such an 
establishment, than any possible training which he 
could secure in the miserable shams, pretensions, 
and operations of "actual business," advertised 
with such persistency, and urged with such assur- 
ances, and which seem for the time to draw into 
the meshes of those commercial colleges so many 
of the weaker sort of untrained, callow, and rustic 
youth. 



358 CONTENTS. 

[Contents contimied from p. 6.) 
CHAPTER XII. 

EXPERIENCES AT KIRTLAND. 

Rev. Truman Coe — A self-made man — Travels — A lady lec- 
turer's triumph — John B. Gough's victory — Prof. O. M. 
Mitchell relates an incident of triumph over Harvard professors — 
New Orleans — Conversation — Northern and Southern views com- 
pared — Catholics evade the priest's control — A queer story — 
Attacked with cholera — Narrow escape with my life — Incidents 
of travel — Jenny Lind's power — One effect of enthusiastic teach- 
ing — A lesson in teaching arithmetic — An arithmetical contest 
— Withdrawal from Kirtland — Mormons — Incidents of overland 
travel in 1838 — Tornado — The last of the wolves in the West- 
ern Reserve. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

MARLBOROUGH EXPERIENCES. 

The question of the Bible in a public school settled— How I 
managed the janitoring — An infidel's views on the Bible — How 
dancing parties were managed — Scientific Institute held — Prof. 
Harvey and Mr. Loren Andrews employed as lecturers — 
Spirit manifestations — Mr. Harvey and tobacco — John A. 
Norris; how he accomplished a six years' college course in 
two and a half years — Story of a tramp — Removal to Salem at 
salary of $1,200 — Narrow escape. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

REMINISCENCES IN SALEM. 

Successful experimenting in school superintendency — A 
variety of difficulties overcome — How the subordinate teachers 
were won — A privileged character managed. 

CHAPTER XV. 

EXPERIENCES WHILE IN LEBANON. 

How I came to live in Lebanon. — Invited to attend Teachers' 
Institute in Oxford to lecture on Teaching and School Manage- 
ment — Appointed a committee to draft a constitution for a 



CONTENTS. 359 

Normal School Association — Lebanon selected as a site of the 
Normal School — Conditions offered — Many unoccupied buildings 
— A favorable fact — Completed my year in Salem — Came to 
Lebanon to make preparations — Joint meeting of Trustees of 
Lebanon Academy and Normal Association — Family still in 
Salem — Mrs. H. packs goods and moves the family — Established 
in Lebanon — Repairs in the Academy — No help from Normal 
Trustees — Their agent takes all the funds he collects — My salary 
limited to $1,200, but all to be made by myself — Trust in God- 
Demands for a Normal School here— Public school teachers 
inimical to the enterprise: would reduce salaries — Arrival of 
family — Misgivings of citizens as to our support, arising from 
failure of five predecessors — Mr. Suydam's solicitude — My ex- 
pectation not to secure support from Lebanon, but to build up 
the town — Hospitality of Lebanon people. 

First Year of School.— Opened November 17, 1855 — Pupils 
100 — Model School in charge of Mrs. H. — Judge Dunlevy's as- 
sistance — Three teachers employed — Prof. Henry Venable one 
of foreign pupils — Others soon sent in by agent — Provision for 
students from abroad — Vacant rooms rented — Fitted up by self 
and sons— Self-boarding inexpensive— $5.00 board in town pre- 
vented large attendance — Farmers' families furnished supplies 
for their children in attendance — Agent sent in pupils, but 
pocketed the funds. 

Summer Institute. — Difficulties of obtaining board overcome 
— Failure of Lebanon accommodations — Large house rented 
and furnished by self — Purchase and invaluable use of the first 
sewing machine in Lebanon — My wife's counsel, sewing and 
keeping boarders — Success of Institute — $320.00 amount re- 
ceived in one year for use of family — Conspiracy of Trustees to 
dislodge me, and give my work, so successfully begun, to one 
of their own number — Judge Dunlevy's interference and failure 
of scheme. 

County Examiners. — Dishonesty of County Examiners and 
schemes of county officers — Attempt to sell best positions in the 
county defeated — Similar case in Chardon — General abuse of 
Examiners' power— Their evasion of the law. 

Model Schools. — Some objections to system— Developed by 



360 CONIENTS. 

actual experience — Results of system -Pupils must relearn the 
business of actual class management — Training classes the sub- 
stitute, with immeasurably better results. Remark — M. S. are 
mechanical and destroy origmal enthusiastic class management. 
Suited to absolute government and autocratic management. 

Second Year. — Opening favorable — Attendance from town 
decreased — From abroad increased — Agent and opposing Trus- 
tees withdrawn — Failure of unpaid assistants to secure salary 
from Association — My entire responsibility in the management 
of Institution — New Board elected, but assumed no control or 
financial risk, leaving me to make all plans and to reap all re- 
wards — Former pupils from the North enter — Mr. Reed and 
Miss Morris teach and pursue studies — Refusal of citizens to 
rent rooms to students — Further difficulties in securing board 
overcome. 

Conflict with County Examiners upon the subject of Gram- 
mar — Examiners defeated upon grammatical discussion. 

Normal Methods issued quarterly during the third and fourth 
years — Published in book form by A. S. Barnes & Co. — Wide sales 
contributed to building up Institution — Larger assembly room 
secured— Rent of furnished room 60 cents per week — Tuition 
raised to $10.00 a term — Attendance diminished during War — 
Two eldest sons enlist — W. D. Henkle resigns the Chair of 
Mathematics and superintends Union School. 

First Graduating Class — 1864, nine graduates in Scientific 
Course — Business Department established — Full College or 
Classic Course introduced in 1865 — Graduates, seven in number, 
secure positions — Tuition raised to jjSi.oo per week — Experience 
in college sustains me in shortening College Course from six 
years to two and a half years. 

The Normal, an Educational Monthly, edited by R. H. Hol- 
brook, 1866 — Buildings purchased — Eureka and Deuterian oc- 
cupied by young ladies and gentlemen — Management of rooms — 
Young ladies sustain order — Wayward boarding-school girl re- 
formed without spies and coercion — Normal and College 
methods of teaching Greek compared — Forty weeks in College 
not equal to ten weeks at the Normal — Hard case disposed 
of without exciting sympathy of pupils — Results of coer- 



CONTENTS. 361 

cion and enthusiasm compared— Absurdity of imposing laws 
upon the large majority for the sake of restricting the few — No 
laws result in increased diligence— College thoroughness hate- 
ful; true thoroughness exciting — Love of work an essential 
qualification of the true teacher— Methods of training assistant 
teachers— Independence of text-books— True object-teaching 

methods — True Normal method ever improving upon itself 

Several improvements enumerated and explained — Use of several 
text-books— General use of library— Outlining by teachers, by pu- 
pils — Elaboration and discussion of Outlining System— Results 

Exhaustiveness of investigation and cogency of expression — 
Data of succeeding years— Pupils from thirteen States— Insti- 
tution changes its name— Purchase of five new buildings- 
Increased boarding facilities furnished by citizens — Boarding 
clubs established— Prices of board and rooms controlled by 
Institution— Cost of table board reduced to $1.00 and 31.25 per 
week— Rooms 30 to 50 cents— Advantages of Normal Course 
over College Course stated — Reasons for frequent change of 
teachers— Year 1873—1,613 pupils— Library^arranged in ten de- 

partments— Contained 2,000 volumes — Always open to pupils 

Competent librarian in attendance — Best study done here First 

SchoolExposition— Displays of cabinets, apparatus, herbariums, 
drawings, etc., etc., prepared by pupils in charge— Ladies best 
exhibitors— Cabinets valued at ^50.00 to ^500- College pro- 
fessor attends the school— His inducements for coming— Success 
of our trained teachers— Statement of his opinions published— 
Visit of College President— His plan of operation— His inability 
to adopt our methods— Mr. Beckman sent to America by Swed- 
ish Government to study our school systems— Visits us— Novel 
systems of management appreciated— His astonishment at the 
good results of the freedom of the sexes— Exposition of our plans 
of government and instruction made in a Stockholm paper — 
Results. 

Management of Illness in School,— Pupils nursed at our 
home— Plan relinquished for numerous reasons— Daily prayer- 
meeting assumes responsibility of nursing— Committees ap- 
pointed—Services volunteered— Friends sent f(^— Prevailing 
good health— Few deaths— Measles— Smallpox— Healthfulness 
of locality. 



362 CONTENTS. 

Management of Wayward Boys. — Expenditure of time and 
money compared with other schools — Moral influence induces 
parents to send us unmanageable boys — Not a reform school — 
Healthful influence of school effective or otherwise — Worthy 
business men developed from the recalcitrant boys. 

Experiments in Physical Training. — Physical exercise consid- 
ered a necessity — Heavy gymnastic apparatus a failure — Light 
gymnastics under C. S. Royce — Base-ball for ladies and gentle- 
men — Croquet — Health-lift by C. S. Royce — Healthfulness sus- 
tained by judicious arrangement of studies and walking to and 
from classes — Under this management one year here equal to 
three at College — No "hot-bed" process — A fact accomplished 
by enthusiastic work — Health at College and the Normal com- 
pared — Advantages of botanical and geological excursions — Co- 
education conducive to health, morality and interested work. 

Business Education. — Peculiar features of a true business 
education — Developed by examples — Success of thoroughly edu- 
cated business men — Reform of wild youth — Normal business 
training compared with the shams of "actual business" and 
commercial colleges — Experience of commercial college gradu- 
ate and our business graduate compared by actual examples — 
Broad education necessary to highly successful business man — 
Example — "Actual business" a fraud. 



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